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TOM QUICK, 

OR 

The Foundation and the Capstone. 

PIONEER ENTERPRISE 

AND 

NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE. 



COMPILED BY 



REV. A. S. GARDINER, 

Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Milford, Pike Co., Pa. 

PICTURE, FRONTISPIECE, OF GOV. BROSS IS INSERTED BY REQUEST. 



"Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations ; ask thy 
father, and he will shew thee ; thy elders, and they will tell thee."— Deui. xxxii., 7. 

, "I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times."— Pj. Ixxvit., 5. 



CHICAGO : 

KNIGHT & LEONARD CO., PRINTERS, 

1889. 



/ / 



"T%c^ 



^ A, Of 



THE 

ONE HUNDRED AND FIETY-SIXTH ANNIVERSARY 

OF THE SETTLEMENT OF MILFORD, 

PIKE CO., PA. 



THE CENTENNIAL OF THE INAUGURATION 
OF WASHINGTON, 

AND OF 

THE CREATION OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC. 



A MONUMENT 

ERECTED TO THE MEMORY OF 

TOM QUICK, 

THE INDIAN SLAYER, 

OK 

"THE AVENGER OF THE DELAWARE," 

AND OF HIS FATHER, THOMAS QUICK, SR. — THE LATTER THE 

FIRST WHITE SETTLER, 

AND THE FORMER THE 

FIRST WHITE CHILD 

BORN ON THE SITE OF THE PRESENT 

BOROUGH OF MILFORD, 

AND WITHIN THE LIMITS OF THE MINISINK VALLEY, 
OF NORTH-EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA. 

1733-4- 



A LIBERTY POLE 

DEDICATED, AND 

"THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER" 

RAISED TO ILLUSTRATE THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE 

SECOND CENTENARY 

OF OUR EXISTENCE AS 

A NATION. 



DEDICATION 



TO 

HON. WILLIAM BROSS, 

WHOSE INTEREST IN THE HISTORY OF HIS NATIVE VALLEY, 

AND WHOSE NOTABLE PUBLIC SPIRIT 

HAVE RENDERED THIS NARRATIVE AND COMPILATION POSSIBLE, 

AND TO 

THE MINNISINK VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 

WHICH TOOK ITS RISE, AND HAS GONE FORWARD IN THE DESIRE TO 

RESCUE FROM OBLIVION THE INCIDENTS OF THE EARLIEST 

AND MORE RECENT OCCUPANCY OF THIS REGION 

BY EUROPEANS AND THEIR DESCENDANTS, 

THIS RESUME OF THE LATE CELEBRATION AT MILFORD, 
PIKE CO., PA., IS 

RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED. 



THE CELEBRATION. 



No happier combination of interesting events could 
have been made than that which attended the 
unveiling of the monument in honor of the first European 
settlers of this part of the valley of the upper Delaware. 
The past and the present were exhibited in striking con- 
trast, and yet in inevitable and gratifying union — for the 
present springs from the past, and the development of 
the past of this nation, and of the colonies which pre- 
ceded it, have from their small beginnings more than real- 
ized the most sanguine expectations of the enterprising 
men who lived at the commencement of the colonial era, 
and of those also who, under God, laid the foundations of 
our Republic. A monument to commemorate the enter- 
prise and daring of the one, and a liberty pole and a 
flag, displaying forty-two stars, bearing testimony to the 
success of the other, present " a union in partition," as 
they stand related to the history of our country. 

The growth of our government and institutions began 
on this continent, in the colonial period. The experiences 



12 TOM QUICK, OR 

of that rugged era were no doubt designed to prepare 
men to meet the period of the revolution which was 
awaiting them, or their children, or both. In both these 
periods the men whom the monument commemorates 
took part, Thomas Quick, Sr., in the first; Tom Quick, 
his son, in both. The latter was born in the midst of the 
colonial period, and survived the revolution some thirteen 
years. The life of the one in this valley was marked 
with exposure, but generally until the end, with peace; 
the life of the other was for many years one of continual 
peril, averted only by perpetual vigilance. Many of the 
early settlers in the valley of the upper Delaware, espe- 
ciall}' that part of it extending from Milford to Cochec- 
ton and beyond, harassed b)' Indians, French, British and 
Tories, abandoned their homes and returned to their 
friends in New England or elsewhere. But Thomas 
Quick, Sr., held on with steadiness till his death, and his 
son followed the father's example, and lived until French 
and British and Tories and Indians, had all vanished 
from this. theatre of their hostility, and had left behind 
them men whom they were unable to conquer, and who 
Avere worthy the freedom and the independence they 
had won. 

It was under the inspiration of such historic and 
ennobling memories as these that the monument and 
the flag-staff were suggested, and have been reared. 

A recital of what transpired on that memorable day, 
Wednesday, the 28th of August. 1889, seems hardly 



THE FOUNDATION AND THE CAPSTONE. 1 3 

necessary in view of the full and admirable reports which 
were made in the newspapers, and which will be repub- 
lished in this volume. Still it may not be amiss to take 
anew at least a general review of the occasion, and to 
mention some things that would be likely to escape 
the notice and perhaps the knowledge of the reporter. 

It was a matter of universal and especial congratula- 
tion, that the day was pleasant. It was indeed one of 
the few most charming days of the summer. The Fourth 
of July had been preceded, attended, and followed, by 
powerful rains. All efforts to celebrate that day in the 
open air had proved vain. Picnic excursions had been 
marred or entirely prevented by rain. When, therefore, 
a fair day came, and at a time set apart for a celebration 
such as had been announced for Milford, people were 
glad on account of both the day and the occasion. 
They were, for these reasons, like children let out of 
school, . and they eagerly and with great unanimity 
hastened to the scene of action. 

It may be said that the liberty pole, liberty cap, 
and flag, had been provided largely by the voluntary 
labor and contributions of the people. The hole for 
the planting of the pole was dug by two men, one 
white, the other colored ; the former Thomas Truax, a 
soldier under Scott in the Mexican war, the latter, 
Michael Scott, a soldier under Burnside in the war for 
the Union. The pole was prepared and erected by 
Nathan Fuller. The cap was carved by Henry Kane, a 



14 TOM QUICK, OR 

Belgian, and was painted, gilded and adorned with 
thirteen stars on a field of blue by an honored citizen, 
William Wood, an Englishman. Much of the work on 
the cap was without charge ; but whatever charge was 
made on the cap, and whatever deficiency remained oh 
the flag, were promptly and- cheerfully met by parents 
who had reason to be proud of their son that day. 

That the projectors of the enterprise had not forgot- 
ten the announcement made in the bills and circulars, 
was realized by the people, when, at six o'clock in the 
morning, the cannon was fired from the top of Foster's 
hill. The report awoke all the echoes of all the hills. 
Its effect was grand. The reverberations penetrated 
the recesses of the mountains, and ,swept like thunder 
through the valleys. Pennsylvania saluted New Jersey 
and New York. The business of the day had begun. 
Three colored men who had seen service as artillery- 
men in the late war had charge of the cannon. They 
did their work so admirably that they deserve to be 
remembered. Their names were William Adams, Samuel 
Hasbrouck and George Brodhead. Their faithful service 
contributed much towards the enthusiasm of the occa- 
sion. During the exercises on Centre Square thirteen 
guns were fired in rapid succession in honor of the Old 
Thirteen States, and of the new flag, then for the first 
time unfurled to the breeze. The exercises at the 
monument were punctuated by the cannon. Its frequent 
roar exhilarated the surging crowd. But it failed to 



THE FOUNDATION AND THE CAPSTONE. 1 5 

penetrate the dull, cold ear of death, whether of the son, 
whose mortal remains, or such of them as the elements 
had spared, lay entombed beneath the monument, or of 
the father, who had nearly one hundred and fifty years 
before been laid away by loving hands, but amid tears 
and terror, in the bosom of the neighboring hill. And 
when the sun went down, a repeated salute was given, 
and with emphasis, to the departing day — a day which 
had brought pleasure to many hearts, which had wit- 
nessed an assembly such as Milford had never seen 
before, and which had crowned with the most complete 
success all that had been contemplated in prospect of 
the celebration. 

The roar of the cannon, the music of the band, the 
splendid flag, the thronging multitude, the impressive 
monument, the delightful scenery, the magnificent day, 
all conspired to fill the souls of the thoughtful with the 
emotions of the patriot and the gratitude of the Chris- 
tian. 

But in addition to all this was the climax, which was 
found in poetry, oratory and song. 

Poetry was laid under contribution in its facetious 
and in its exultant forms. At Centre Square we heard 
that inspiring piece, " The American Flag," by Rodman 
Drake, read by Hon. W. H. Armstrong, with a clearness, 
emphasis and discrimination that showed the reader to be 
completely under the spell of the theme and of the occa- 
sion. And such was the feeling of the vast assembly, 



1 6 TOM QUICK, OR 

And it might well be so ; for the reader was under a 
double inspiration, first from his theme, and then from 
the fact, that day itself was, by a pleasing coincidence, 
the sixty-third anniversary of his birth. 

At the monument poetry lent its aid in "The Beau- 
tiful Rivers and Lakes of Maine," a poem read by its 
venerable author, Dr. Geo. B. Wallis, with a readiness 
that was surprising, considering the wonderful names of 
Indian origin which he had woven, with marvelous skill, 
into his musical verse. Another read some farcical 
stanzas descriptive of the life and era of Tom Quick and 
the early settlers, all of which tended to give variety to 
the exercises, and helped to pack every moment with 
pleasure. 

Oratory was not wanting. Seriousness combined with 
cheerfulness marked all that was said. The oration on 
the flag arrested and held the attention of every hearer. 
The speaker showed the full glow of his subject in his 
animated countenance, emphatic action and hearty, ear- 
nest utterance, and in a voice musical and penetrating, so 
that all could hear. There was in the arrangements of 
the hour a happy combination of youth with age. And 
the sight awakened pleasing reflections ; for it was 
apparent that the fathers had nothing to fear for the 
future of the country and the world, so long as their 
sons came forward with intelligence, virtue and manly 
courage, to take up the work which they themselves 
must, sooner or later, commit to their hands. The words 



THE FOUNDATION AND THE CAPSTONE. 1/ 

spoken at the monument were words of " truth and 
soberness." Youth and age united in eloquent utter- 
ances there. Judge Allerton recalled the narratives and 
stories of colonial and revolutionary times, and especially 
those relating to Tom Quick, and his remarks, and those 
of Amos Van Etten, Esq., and others, gave abundant 
proof that some of the critics of this celebrated character 
had heaped upon him obloquy which was totally un- 
merited. V 

An address was given by Rev. A. S. Gardiner on the 
life and character of Tom Quick as an outgrowth of his 
times, and on Governor Bross, the honored donor of the 
memorial, himself a descendant of the fourth generation 
from Thomas Quick, Sr., the pioneer whose record is on 
the monument. It is a matter of special satisfaction to 
read from the " Tri-States Union," whose report of the 
proceedings, with the reports of the "Gazette" and the 
" Despatch," will constitute an important part of this 
volume, the following words : " We wish to congratulate 
Rev. Mr. Gardiner on the grand success of an under- 
taking which at first seemed so unpopular, and so impos- 
sible to accomplish. He has not only accomplished the 
erection of a monument to the memory of Tom Quick, 
but has removed the stigma of assassin, which had for 
many years clung to that memory." 

Song contributed its part to enliven the celebration. 
The familiar and soul-stirring pieces, "America," " Rally 
round the Flag, Boys," and "The Star-spangled Banner," 



1 8 TOM QUICK, OR 

were rendered with a power rarely equalled. Mrs. St. 
John did splendid service. She had secured the aid of 
a chorus which fully sustained her in the difficult part 
she was called to perform. 

At the raising of the flag reference was made to the 
forty-two stars which were upon it, and to the criticism 
that their appearance there was rather premature. In 
answer, attention was called to the physical law of 
refraction, whereby the stars and heavenly bodies appear 
to view some time before they are actually above the 
horizon. 

The flag was raised to its destined height by one of 
Milford's most noted and respected citizens. This dis- 
tinguished honor was assigned to Miss Fanny Dimmick, 
who, richly attired, proceeded to the discharge of her 
trust amid universal plaudits and congratulations. As 
the splendid flag rose in air, the wind spread out its 
ample folds, and its brilliant colors of red, white and 
blue excited the admiration of every beholder. As it 
ascended, it swung towards the west. And this was 
regarded as an interesting circumstance, because the 
wind had come from the direction of Lexington and 
Concord and Bunker Hill, and because 

"Westward the course of empire takes its way." 

When the flag reached the summit of the pole, Miss 
Fanny saluted it with the words, " Long may it wave ! " 
and there went up a shout such as had never been heard 
in Milford before. 



THE FOUNDATION AND THE CAPSTONE. I9 

Then followed the "Star-spangled Banner," sung by 
Mrs. St. John. This raised the multitude to the highest 
pitch of enthusiasm. Those who heard that song and 
that voice will never forget them. But when this was 
concluded, the patriotic enthusiasm would not subside, 
and " Rally round the Flag, Boys," followed, sung with 
a spirit that carried one back to the times when those 
words had a meaning which the rising generation can 
but little understand. 

And now we leave the reader to the reports and 
speeches which are in the remainder of the volume. 
Would that we could embellish the pages with photo- 
graphs of the objects and scenes described. Photographs 
of the monument, and of the old Flemish Bible, and of 
its venerable and now departed owner have indeed been 
taken, and all these are full of the deepest interest. 

The chief thing that was wanting in the celebration, 
and which would have given it completeness, was the 
presence of Governor Bross himself. His telegram and 
letter brought him very near, but these fell short of the 
sound of his familiar and eloquent voice, and of the 
magnetism which attends his person as he comes into 
contact with his fellow men. Nothing but physical dis- 
ability prevented his attendance. Should a kind Provi- 
dence give to him renewed vigor, so that he may once 
more revisit the scenes of his childhood, he will meet 
with a welcome such as the past has never accorded him. 
The bell will speak from the steeple, and greetings 



20 TOM QUICK, OR 

springing from hearts glowing with friendship will meet 
him on every hand, and the author of "The Legend of 
the Delaware" will find the legend giving way to living 
facts, and himself the hero of the story. 

The following bill gave public notice of the celebra- 
tion : 

TOM QUICK! 
The Era of Frontier Settlement ! 

The Monument to Tom Quick and his Father will be un- 
veiled with appropriate exercises at Milford, Pike Co., Pa., on 
Wednesday, August 28, 1889, 

At two o'clock p. M. 
"The Stars and Stripes" 

will be raised on the new 

Centennial Liberty Pole 

On Centre Square, on which occasion 

GiFFORD PiNCHOT, EsQ., 

Will deliver an address, Hon. W. H. Armstrong will read 
Drake's celebrated poem on the American Flag, and the "Star- 
spangled Banner" will be sung by Mrs. Geo. St. John, accom- 
panied by a suitable chorus. 

The exercises at the Monument will be opened by Rev. Dr. 
Mills, of Port Jervis, N. Y., President of the Minisink Valley 
Historical society. Short addresses may be expected from 
Hon. D. M. Van Auken, J. H. Van Etten and John A. Kipp, 
Esqs., of Milford, Judge Allerton and Amos Van Etten, Esq., 
of Port Jervis, Rev. Jos. Millett, of Montague, N. J., and Rev. 
A. S. Gardiner, who will in the name of 

HON. WILLIAM BROSS, 

the generous donor of the Monument, present the same to the 
Borough of Milford, through the Chief Burgess and Common 



THE FOUNDATION AND THE CAPSTONE. 21 

Council who, with the Commissioners of the County, are 
expected to be present. The Odd Fellows, of Lodge No. 828, 
have been invited to attend. 

The procession from Centre Square to the Monument will 
be led by the Col. John Nyce Post, G. A. R., and Rudolph's 
Cornet Band. The Post will be under the command of Lieut. 
Alfred Dingman. 

Letters may be expected to be read on the occasion from 
Hon. Wm. Bross and others. 

A list of the contents of the iron box placed in the founda- 
tion of the monument will also be read. 

The monument is cast from Passaic zinc, and is from the 
establishment of the Monumental Bronze Co., Bridgeport, Ct. 

Citizens! This is an Historic occasion which will not be 
repeated! Let us assemble and do honor to the Pioneers and 
First Settlers of this part of the valley of the Upper Dela- 
ware! Let us inaugurate the 

SECOND CENTENNIAL OF THE REPUBLIC 

By the erection of a lofty and substantial Liberty Pole in 
Milford, and the raising of the National Flag, with the thirteen 
stripes emblematic of the thirteen original States, and the forty- 
two stars, the number of the States over which the Flag floats 
to-day! 

ORDER OF EXERCISES AT THE CELEBRATION. 

1. Music by band. 

2. Prayer. 

3. Music by band. 

4. Reading of ode, "The American Flag," by Hon. W. H. 

Armstrong. 

5. Music by band. 

6. Oration by Gifford Pinchot, Esq. 

7. Music by band. 



22 TOM QUICK, OR 

8. Raising of the flag, by Miss Fanny Dimmick. 

9. "Star-spangled Banner," sung by Mrs. Geo. St. John, of 

Port Jervis, accompanied by chorus and organ. 

10. Music by band. 

EXERCISES AT THE MONUMENT. 

1. Music by band. 

2. Reading of letter from Governor Bross. 

3. Address, by Amos Van Etten, Esq. 

4. Poem, by Dr. Geo. B. Wallis. 

5. Short addresses by I. H. Van Etten, Esq., Hon. D. M. Van 

Auken, J. Kipp, Esq., Rev. Joseph Millett, Rev. Geo. 
Van Wyck, Judge Allerton and Rev. A. S. Gardiner. 

6. Catalogue of contents of box at the base of the founda- 

tion of the monument. 

7. Music by the band. 

8. Dismissal of the assembly. 

t 

From " The Dispatch," Mil/ord, Pa., September 5, 1889. 

Shortly before the exercises began on Centre Square the fol- 
lowing telegram was received and read from Governor Bross : 

Chicago, III., August 28, 1:30 p. m. 
To Rev. A. S. Gardiner, Milford, Pa.: 

Congratulate the people on their patriotic devotion to the history of 
their beautiful valley. Wm. Bross. 

In response to this the following telegram was sent: 

Milford, Pa., August 28, 2 P. m. 
Hon. Wm. Bross: 

Congratulations from the Chief Burgess and Common Council of 
Milford, and from the immense audience now assembled. 

A. S. Gardiner. 



THE FOUNDATION AND THE CAPSTONE. 23 

LETTER OF REGRET FROM REV. DR. S. W. MILLS. 

Port Jervis, August 27, 1889. 
Rev. a. S. Gardiner: 

Dear Brother, — The probability is that I shall not be able 
to attend the gathering at Milford, to-morrow, as the funeral 
services of the late Mr. Cook, one of our most prominent 
business men, take place at the same hour. He was for many- 
years one of my nearest neighbors and with whom I have 
been brought into frequent contact in various ways. I feel 
that I must honor his memory by attending his funeral. There 
will be enough others to honor the memory of Tom Quick 
Avithout me, although I would greatly enjoy being present and 
listening to the addresses. I did not, however, expect any such 
position as that which you have assigned me, and if present, 
I should have no address to deliver. Therefore my absence 
will not be felt. 

Trusting you may have an occasion of great interest, I 
remain Yours truly, S. W. Mills. 

Fr07n the "Tri-States Unio7i," Thursday, Augiist 2^, i88g. 

IN MEMORIAM. 

Milford's Great Day. 

THE affair in EVERY PARTICULAR A GRAND SUCCESS. 

Fully 1,500 People present at' the Center Square Exer- 
cises AND AT THE UNVEILING OF THE MONUMENT ERECTED 

TO THE Memory of Thomas Quick, Senior and Junior, on 
THE Banks of the Van De Mark. — A Brief Sketch of the 
Exercises. 

At 5 o'clock Wednesday morning the cannon on Foster's 
hill announced to the good people of Milford that the day had 
arrived which hereafter would be memorable in the history of 
Pike county. 



24 TOM QUICK, OR 

At an early hour the people came driving in from every 
direction, and by noontime the crowds in the streets of Mil- 
ford outnumbered any previous gathering for many years 
past. 

The faces of the people were a study; no one seemed to 
fully understand the exact purpose of the meeting, and every 
man was surprised at meeting his neighbor and laughingly 
inquired why he was there. 

On Centre Square a novel platform for the speakers and 
singers had been prepared; it was a great lumber box wagon 
covered with boards, on which seats and an organ had been 
placed. The platform was edged with bunting tastily arranged, 
and presented a very handsome appearance. 

As the hour for the beginning of the exercises drew near 
the people gathered at .the scjuare, and at 2 o'clock, when Rev. 
Mr. Gardiner, with a countenance shining with happiness, 
called the assembly to order, he was greeted by the cheers of 
a great multitude. 

The exercises were opened with prayer by Rev. G. P. Van 
Wyck, of Washington, 1). C., who served during the war as 
chaplain in the famous Tenth Legion, and who now is a chap- 
lain in the regular army. 

Mr. Van Wyck was then chosen as chairman of the meet- 
ing, after which several patriotic airs were well rendered by 
the Rudolph Band, of Milford. 

Rev. Mr. Gardiner then read a letter from Rev. S.W. Mills, 
D.D.. of Port Jervis, President of the Minisink Valley Histor- 
ical Society, expressing his great regret at being unable to 
attend. At that moment a telegram was handed Mr. Gar- 
diner, which proved to be from Ex-Governor William Bross, 
of Chicago. The telegram was dated: 

Chicago, August 28, 1:30 p.m. 
I congratulate the people on their patriotic devotion to the history 
of their beautiful valley. William Bross. 



THE FOUNDATION AND THE CAPSTONE. 25 

The telegram was received with cheers, and the choir on the 
platform sang, with great spirit, the grand old hymn "America." 

The orator of the day, Gifford Pinchot, Esq., was then 
introduced, but the spirit of the occasion had taken possession 
of the people, and it was some minutes before he could pro- 
ceed, the cheers being so loud and prolonged. 

This was the young man's first appearance before the 
people of his native county and a great proportion of the 
assembly had, probably, never before seen his face, his whole 
life, so far, having been spent at school, in college and travel. 
His appearance, as he arose before the people, attracted 
instant attention. His modest demeanor, manly look and 
honest, clean-cut and intelligent face, pronounced him a man 
and, as such, the people received him. 

The address, which will be found in full in another part of 
the issue, was a commemoration of the inauguration of our 
government and a history of our flag. 

Following the address Hon. W. H. Armstrong read Drake's 
celebrated poem on the "American Flag," and this was fol- 
lowed by the " Star-spangled Banner " sung by Mrs. Geo. St. 
John, accompanied by a chorus of excellent singers and with 
Mrs. Mitchell, of Milford, presiding at the organ. Mrs. St. 
John was full of the spirit of the hour and her first notes 
trembled from patriotic emotion, but in a moment the tremor 
passed away and her strong, pure and sweet voice rang out 
over the multitude, giving them a rare pleasure and a desire 
for more, and at the conclusion the applause was so great and 
so continued that Mrs. St. John was obliged to gratify their 
wishes and responded with "Rally Round the Flag." At the 
finish of the song the Stars and Stripes were flung to the 
breeze from the Centennial Liberty Pole, and the first part of 
the services of the day were ended. 

A procession was then formed with the Rudolph band 
at the front followed by Col. John Nyce Post, G. A. R.^ 



26 TOM QUICK, OR 

commanded by Lieut. Alfred Dingman, next came prominent 
citizens, followed by the platform wagon with four horses 
attached, and this was followed by citizens in carriages. It 
made a handsome procession and was fully a half mile in 
length. 

The aJidresses on this occasion and the poems read were 
so many in number and of such length that it would be 
impossible to give a report of them. The speakers were: 
Rev. George P. Van Wyck, Amos Van Etten, Jr., Esq., of 
Port Jervis, Rev. A. S. Gardiner, Rev. Joseph Millett and 
J. M. AUerton, Esq. 

Poems appropriate to the occasion were read by J. Hickson 
Van Etten and George Wallis, a member, of the editorial staff 
of the N. Y. "Herald," in the time of the elder Bennet. 

At the conclusion of these exercises Rev. Mr. Gardiner 
read a letter from Governor Bross, giving reasons for the 
erection of the monument and expressing regret at his 
inability to be present. Mr. Gardiner then, in the name 
and behalf of Mrs. John T. Quick, a member of the Quick 
family, 92 years of age, and who had expected to be 
present and unveil the monument, delegated the authority to 
perform the ceremony to P. A. L. Quick, and J. Victor Quick, 
the most prominent members of the Quick family present. 

The monument is 11^ feet high, of handsome design and 
is cast from Passaic zinc. 

The inscriptions on the monument give a considerable 
history of the lives of Tom Quick and his father Thomas, 
to whose memory the monument is erected. The inscriptions 
also intimate the name of the donor, William Bross, and state 
that the work was done under the direction of Rev. A. S. 
Gardiner, pastor of the First Presbyterian church at Milford, 
Pa. It gives the age of Tom Quick, who was born in 1734 
and died in 1796. Space will not permit us to give it in 
full, but those wishing a history of the Quick family and of 



THE FOUNDATION AND THE CAPSTONE. 2/ 

Wm. Bross in brief should visit the monument when visiting 
Milford. 

The few bones of Tom, found in the Rosetown ceme- 
tery, enclosed in a glass jar, are under the monument, together 
with an iron box containing copies of the newspapers of the 
nearby country and many other interesting documents too 
numerous to mention. 

The location of the monument is on the right bank of the 
VanDeMark creek a few hundred feet from the bridge cross- 
ing that stream on the main street entering Milford from 
Port Jervis. 

We wish to congratulate Rev. Mr. Gardiner on the grand 
success of an undertaking which at first seemed so unpopular 
and so impossible to accomplish. He not only accomplished 
the erection of a monument to the memory of Tom Quick, 
but has removed the stigma of assassin that had for many 
years clung to that memory. 

From "The Dispatch" Milford, Pa., August 2g, iSSg. 

THE DUAL CELEBRATION. 

Yesterday was a patriotic occasion in Milford, a crowd esti- 
mated at from ten to twelve hundred pouring into town, not 
only from this county, but from Sussex, Orange and Wayne, to 
fittingly commemorate the second centennial of the Republic 
by planting a liberty pole, unfurling a handsome banner to the 
breeze and drawing inspiration from the event. And to 
further honor the memory of Tom Quick and his father, his- 
toric characters of border life, the son known as the " Indian 
Slayer " and the first white child born on the site of Milford — 
the father the pioneer Hollander who emigrated in 1733 to 
this, at the time, unbroken wilderness, infested with Indians, 
lived on friendly relations with them for years and at last fell 
a victim at their hands. 



28 TOM QUICK, OR 

That it needs but a spark to fire the torch of patriotism was 
noticeable at the gathering on Centre Square in the afternoon 
when the ceremonies connected with the raising of the stars 
and stripes began. The audience, large, intelligent, apprecia- 
tive, was in sympathy with the movement and when the hand- 
some flag was run up to the apex and the national air sung, 
enthusiasm was manifest in every countenance. The Yankee 
nation is patriotic, and, as the young orator said, will ever 
" honor the flag in time of peace and defend it in time of 
war ! " 

The day resembled a Fourth of July celebration, business 
people and pleasure-seekers alike devoting the afternoon to 
enjoyment. At sunrise the people for miles around were 
awakened by the echoes of the old cannon which, planted on 
the highest point of Foster Hill, in plain sight of the village, 
and manned by three colored cannoneers from Port Jervis, 
ushered in the day. Throughout the exercises of the after- 
noon, and at sunset, too, salutes were fired and the people 
were called to assemble by the ringing of the Presbyterian 
church bell, a gift also, of Hon. Wm. Bross, of Chicago. 

Rev. A. S. Gardiner, in well chosen words, called the 
assembly to order on Centre Square at 2:30 o'clock, and after 
music by the Rudolph band, he read a letter from Rev. Dr. 
Mills, of Port Jervis, regretting that gentleman's inability to 
appear. Rev. Geo. P. Van Wyck, of Washington, D. C, was 
chosen president of the day and, in prayer, invoked Divine 
blessings. A chorus of fifteen voices sang " My Country, ' Tis 
of Thee." Hon.- Wm. H. Armstrong, read Drake's noted 
poem on the American flag, and was followed by music by the 
band. A congratulatory telegram from Mr. Bross, the donor 
of the Tom Quick monument, was then read, when Gifford 
Pinchot, Esq., son of Mr. James W. Pinchot, of Gray Towers, 
was introduced. His address, short, perspicuous, and delivered 
in clear tones, was received with enthusiasm. The oration 



THE FOUNDATION AND THE CAPSTONE. 29 

was a most commendable one and elicited general approba- 
tion. 

After the conclusion of the address, Miss Fanny Dimmick 
hoisted the flag to its commanding position, and Mrs. Geo. St. 
John sang gloriously "The Star Spangled Banner," supported 
by the chorus of a dozen or more voices. " Rally Round 
the Flag " was sung by the audience and after remarks by 
Mr. Gardiner, the crowd wended its way to the Tom Quick 
monument, headed by the band and the Col. John Nyce Post, 
G. A. R., to continue the celebration. 

AT THE MONUMENT. 

Music by the band inaugurated the ceremonies at the 
monument. Rev. Mr. Gardiner exhibited a Flemish Bible 
brought from Holland over 150 years ago, and owned by the 
oldest representative of the Quick family, Mrs. John T. Quick, 
of Westfall township, now 92 years of age. Mr. Gardiner 
also read a long, interesting letter from ex-Lieut. Governor 
Bross, through whose generosity the celebration was made pos- 
sible. Addresses were delivered by Amos Van Etten, Esq., of 
Port Jervis; J. H. Van Etten, Esq., of Milford; Judge Aller- 
ton, of Port Jervis; Rev. Joseph Millett, of Montague, and a 
poem entitled "The Lovely Rivers and Lakes of Maine," was 
read with good effect by Geo. W. Wallis, Esq., of East Orange. 
Mrs. John T. Quick was expected to unveil the monument, but 
unable to be present on account of infirmities, the unveiling 
was performed in her behalf by Messrs. P. A. L. and J. V. 
Quick, descendants of the pioneer settler. The list of con- 
tents of the iron box placed under the monument was then 
read. It was long and included a glass jar containing the 
remains of Tom Quick, a Holy Bible, Hon. Wm. Bross' book 
entitled " Tom Quick; or the Legend of the Deleware," stone 
from the Minisink battle field, copies of the Port Jervis 
"Gazette" and "Union," Milford "Dispatch," etc. The 
monument, of Passaic zinc, made to represent granite, is a 



30 TOM QUICK, OR 

very creditable piece of workmanship, eight feet high from 
the base, which rests upon a stone foundation four feet above 
ground. * 

The exercises closed with delivering into the custody of the 
Borough of Milford, through the Chief Burgess, A. D. Brown, 
Esq., the monument, and an address by Rev. Mr. Gardiner. 

Cheers interspersed the meeting throughout. New Jersey 
was cheered for sending among its citizens the bright and 
witty Dominie Millett, of Montague, who has the knack of 
saying the right thing at the right time. New York was 
cheered because, beside the orators sent over to help along 
the celebration. Col. Pine and "Jim" Bennett were here, rep- 
resenting the editorial fraternity. And Gov. Bross was 
cheered for his generous gift. 

Thus closed, with enthusiasm throughout, a celebration 
rarely, if ever, equalled in size in Milford. And to the efforts 
of one man, principally, was the success due. Rev. A. S. Gar- 
diner worked persistently and indefatigably, against public 
sentiment, it may be said, to erect a monument to "Tom 
Quick, the Indian Slayer," and he has succeeded. As a pio- 
neer monument it possesses much interest independent of the 
diversity of public opinion whether the "Red Revenger" 
deserves to be immortalized in bronze, or zinc. An iron 
fence will soon inclose the monument. 



From the " PorlJa~jis Weekly Gazette" Friday, August 30, JS89. 

Centennial Celebration of the Inauguration of our 
Present Constitutional Government, and a Fine 
Oration by Gifford Pinchot, Esq., and then a 
Glorification of Tom Quick, the Red Revenger. 

Wednesday, August 28, 1889, was a great day — a gala 
day — a red-letter day for Pike county's proud capital and for 
the county itself, whose beauty and chivalry were very largely 



THE FOUNDATION AND THE CAPSTONE. 3 1 

and very respectably represented, to witness or take part in 
the ceremonies incident to the raising of the American flag on 
the Centennial Liberty Pole to commemorate the organization 
of our Government under the Federal Constitution and, after- 
ward, to the unveiling of a monument to commemorate Tom 
Quick, the alleged great Indian slayer and avenger of his 
father's death at the hands of the red men. At least 1,500 
persons were present. They came from the bush-clad hills of 
Pike, from old Sussex, from Sullivan and from Orange — for 
the Quick blood courses through the veins of many of the 
inhabitants of all these counties — and they constituted a 
large and merry throng. 

The beginning of the proceedings was proclaimed, not 
exactly by salvos of artillery, but by a single cannon, of good 
report, engineered by colored artillerymen from Port Jervis — 
William Adams, captain, and Samuel Hasbrouck and Charles 
Brodhead, assistants; Jake Drivers acting as a sort of general 
helper. This gun was fired thirty times or more during the 
ceremonies, punctuating the orations and waking the slum- 
bering echoes of the valley and the hills. 

About I o'clock p. M. the people began to gather about 
Frieh's first-class Centre Square Hotel, but the indications at 
that hour were not highly encouraging. Yet at 2 o'clock 
Centre Square was crowded with people and vehicles, and 
soon the first and far most important business of the day was 
commenced. 

Rev. G. P. Van Wyck, of Washington, D. C. (brother of 
our own Charley, the General, and late Senator from Ne- 
braska), who married a Milford lady (Miss Burleigh), was 
chosen to preside, and he opened the proceedings with prayer. 
Then came singing by Mrs. St. John and others, accompanied 
by an organ. We should have said before that a large open 
wagon, decorated with flags, was used as a rostrum. On this 
the organ and a sufficient number of chairs were placed, and 



32 TOM QUICK, OR 

from it the speaking was done. Rev. A. S. Gardiner, of Mil- 
ford, stated the object of the meeting. Hon. William H. 
Armstrong read Rodman Drake's celebrated poem on our 
Flag, and then the orator of the occasion, Gifford Pinchot, 
Esq., was introduced. Mr. Pinchot made a most excellent 
and sensible address, which was the general theme of praise 
during the remainder of the day. 

After the oration came the singing of the " Star-spangled 
Banner," by Mrs. George St. John, of Port Jervis, who per- 
formed her part, as usual, in an excellent manner. Other 
patriotic songs followed, in the singing of which Mrs. St. John 
participated. 

The ceremonies and proceedings attending this flag-raising 
were very interesting and were highly enjoyed by the large 
multitude present. They concluded about 3:30 o'clock, when 
the movable rostrum was hauled to Sarah street, (just over 
the stone bridge as we go into Milford from Port Jervis) and 
the crowd and many vehicles followed, to witness the unveil- 
ing of the Tom Quick monument. This monument is made 
of Passaic zinc, and was manufactured by the Monumental 
Bronze Co., of Bridgeport, Conn. It rests upon a foundation 
of stone and cement three feet square and eight feet deep. 
Its height from the summit of the mound is eight feet, and 
from the general surface of the ground is eleven feet, six 
inches. On the east side of the shaft is placed a fragment of 
the original stone at the grave of Tom Quick who died ninety- 
three years ago. 

The monument stands in a street sixty feet wide, a street 
which is destined to be a part of one of the leading pleasure 
drives of Milford. 

From the monument can be seen a range of hills extend- 
ing all around the village. Also in the distance the Shawan- 
gunk mountains in New Jersey. Near by is the Van de Mark, 
which comes from a distance among the hills towards the 



THE FOUNDATION AND THE CAPSTONE. 33 

northwest, and flows southeastward until it empties at Milford 

eddy into the Delaware. 

The inscriptions on the monument are as follows: 

On the side looking east: Emblem on shaft, a wreath. 

Inscription on die: 

Tom Quick was the first white child born within the limits of 

the present Borough of Milford. This spot was his 

birth-place and home till the cruel 

death of his father by 

the Indians, 

1756. 

On the base next to the die: 

Tom Quick, the Indian Slayer; 

or 
The Avenger of the Delaware. 

On side of monument looking south: Emblem on shaft, 
the follo^ving grouped together and united by a shield: 
Tomahawk, canoe paddle, scalping knife, calumet, wampum. 
Inscription on die: 

Maddened by the death of his Father at the hands of the Sav- 
ages, Tom Quick never abated his hostility to them 
till the day of his death, a period 
of over forty years. 

On base next to the die: 

Tom Quick died in 1796, at the house of James Rosecrantz, on 

the banks of the Delaware, five miles northeast of this spot, 

and was buried on the farm of his friend in what is 

now the Rose Cemetery, two miles south of 

Matamoras. His remains were taken up 

on the I loth anniversary of the battle 

of the Minisinjv, July 22d, 1889, 

and placed beneath this 

monument. 

On north side: Emblem on shaft, plow. Inscription on 
die : 



34 TOM QUICK, OR 

Thomas Quick, Sr., Father of Tom Quick, his oldest child, 

emigrated from Holland to America, and settled on this spot 

in 1733. He was the first white settler in this part 

of the upper Delaware, and his Log Cabin, 

Saw Mill, and Grist Mill, built on this 

bank of the Van De Mark, were 

the first structures ever 

erected by white men 

in the settlement of this region. 

On the base next the die: 

After a peaceful residence here of twenty years, and of unbroken 
friendship with the Indians, Thomas Quick, Sr., while cross- 
ing the Delaware on the ice, carrying a giist on his 
shoulder, was shot and scalped by his supposed 
friends, the Delawares, who were lying in 
ambush along the bluff on the south 
side of the mouth of the Van De 
Mark, and half a mile east 
of his humble 
home. 

On west side: Emblem on shaft, flag of the United States, 
on standard and partly furled. Inscription on die: 

This monument was erected by a descendant of Thomas Quick, 
of the fourth generation; in youth a resident of Mil- 
ford, in age, one of the founders of the 
" Chicago Tribune," and from 1865 
to 1869 Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor of the State 
of Illinois. 

Inscription on base next to die: 

Done under the direction of Rev. A. S. Gardiner, Pastor of 
the First Presbyterian Church of Milford, 1889. 

Rev. Mr. Gardiner fully explained everything necessary to 
give the audience a clear understanding of the character and 
construction of the monument and the purpose of its erection. 
Tom Quick's father and William Bross were glorified in the 



THE FOUNDATION AND THE CAPSTONE. 35 

matter. Speeches were made by Amos Van Etten, Jr., Esq., 
of Port Jervis, J. Hixon Van Etten, Esq., of Milford, Rev. 
Joseph Millett, of Montague, and J. M. Allerton, Port Jervis. 
Mr. George W. Wallis, Emeritus editor of the New York 
"Herald," recited a poem into which all the Indian names 
ever heard of were ingeniously woven rhythmically and in 
rhyme. Mr. Wallis read the poem very well and the people 
were highly pleased. 

We have already devoted so much space to the monument 
that we shall not be able to give even synopses of the speeches 
made. Mr. Amos Van Etten glorified the departed hero and 
made some remarks that were understood to reflect unfavor- 
ably upon Mr. Britton A. Westbrook, the well known and 
usually accurate local historian, of Sussex, and this fact may 
serve to draw from Brit, what he will term " The True Story 
of Tom Quick." " Hix " Van Etten's oration consisted in 
part of the poem in Gov. Bross' "Life of Tom Quick," 
recently published, devoted, or dedicated, to Tom's niece, 
whom he carried on his shoulder, the girl being ill, when 
threading the Pike county woods after having escaped from 
their Indian captors.* Our friend. Dominie Millett, made a 
rattling good address, of a semi-humorous sort, which was 
much applauded. The speaking at the monument was con- 
cluded by Judge Allerton, whose discourse was very interest- 
ing and instructive on the history of the Minisink and Dela- 
ware valleys and the doings of the Indians in the days that 
tried (white) men's and women's souls, and we regret that we 
are unable to do justice to it here. 

Mr. Gardiner described in detail the articles deposited in a 
box under the monument, among which was a copy of the 
Port Jervis " Gazette," containing the proceedings of the Mini- 
sink Valley Historical Society, at their meeting in July last. 
Then he made a formal transfer of the monument and the 

* The poem was from the life of Tom Quick, compiled by James Quinlan, of 
Monticello, N. Y., in 1S52. 



36 TOM QUICK, OR 

ground upon which it stands, to Chief Burgess A. D. Brown, 
of Milford. 

The venerable Mrs. John T. Quick, aged 92, who was to 
have unveiled the monument, was unable to be present, and 
Mr. Gardiner appointed Peter A. L. Quick, of Dingmans 
Ferry, and Victor Quick, of Montague township, N. J-, to lift 
the veil. Mrs. Quick's ancient Flemish Bible and her photo- 
graph were exhibited to the audience. 

The large crowd dispersed much pleased with the day's 
proceedings. 

It is proper to say that the Rudolph band, of Milford, 
furnished the instrumental music and played very well consid- 
ering the fact that this band is a new organization. 

When the ceremonies were ended the happiest man in Mil- 
ford, perhaps, was the Rev. A. S. Gardiner, to whose perse- 
verance and popularity the success of the day was due. The 
beaming serenity of the good Dominie's kindly countenance 
was very pleasant to look upon. Everybody seemed glad 
because Mr. Gardiner was glad — because his efforts had been 
crowned with such signal success. 



From the "New York Times," Thursday, August 2g, i88g. 

IN HONOR OF TOM QUICK. 

MiDDLETOWN, N, Y., August 28, 1889. 

The unveiling of the newly completed monument to the 
memory of Tom Quick, the Indian slayer, whom tradition 
credits with unrivaled strategy and success in fighting the 
savage foe, took place at Milford, Pa., to-day, in the presence 
of a large crowd composed mainly of the descendants of the 
early settlers of the historic Minisink region. 

Among those who took prominent parts in the ceremonies 
and addresses were the Rev. S. W. Mills, D.D., of Port Jervis, 
N. Y., President of the Minisink Historical Society; Judge J. 



THE FOUNDATION AND THE CAPSTONE. 37 

M. Allerton, of the same place; Amos Van Etten, also of Port 
Jervis; the Rev. A. S. Gardiner and ex-Congressman D. M. 
Van Auken, of Milford; the Rev. Joseph Millette, of Mon- 
tague, N. J., and others of note. Col. Nyce Post, G. A. R., 
also took part in the ceremonies. 

The monument is a gift to the borough of Milford by 
ex-Lieut. Gov. William Bross, of Illinois, himself a native of 
the Delaware Valley, and of kin to the Quick father and son, 
whose memory it perpetuates. Mr. Bross was unable to be 
present at the ceremonies to-day, and the memorial was form- 
ally presented in his behalf to the Chief Burgess and Common 
Council of Milford by the Rev. A. S. Gardiner. 

The monument itself is in the form of a cubical base and 
shaft of New Jersey zinc, standing on a pedestal of granite 
capped with bluestone. Each face has an appropriate device 
and inscription. These inscriptions tell briefly the story of 
the deeds and events which the monument is designed to 
commemorate. 

From the "New York World," Friday, August 30, iS8g. 

INDIAN-SLAYER QUICK'S MONUMENT. 

Many Visitors were present at its Unveiling in Mil- 
ford, Pa., Yesterday. 

Port Jervis, N. Y., August 29. 
Milford, the pretty little capital of Pike county, Pa., and 
the summer home of many New York and Philadelphia people, 
had a red-letter day yesterday, when the whole surrounding 
country celebrated the unveiling of ex-Gov. Bross' monument 
to Tom Quick. Quick, it will be remembered, occupies a 
prominent place in the history of this valley. Maddened by 
the death of his father at the hands of the savages, Tom 
Quick never abated his hostility to them till the day of his 
death, a period of over forty years. He died in 1796, and 



38 TOM QUICK, OR 

was buried in wliat is now the Rose Cemetery, two miles south 
of Matamoras. His remains were taken up on the one hun- 
dred and tenth anniversary of the battle of Minnisink, July 
2 2, 1889, and placed beneath this monument. 

The monument is made of zinc. It rests upon a founda- 
tion of stone and cement three feet square and eight feet 
deep. Its height from the summit of the mound is eight feet 
and from the surface of the ground eleven feet six inches. On 
the east side of the shaft is placed a fragment of stone from 
the original grave of Tom Quick. 

The village wore a holiday appearance, and, although 
having but seven hundred inhabitants all told, entertained 
two thousand people at its celebration. The oration of the 
day was delivered by Gifford Pinchot, late of Yale College, 
and a son of Mr. and Mrs. James Pinchot, owners of the Fifth 
Avenue Hotel in New York City. Rev. G. P. Van Wyck, 
brother of Gen. Chas. Van Wyck, late Senator from Nebraska, 
opened the proceedings with prayer. 

ADDRESS OF GIFFORD PINCHOT, ESQ. 

Delivered at the Celebration on Centre Square, 
August 28, 1889, to commemorate the Second Cen- 
tennial OF THE Republic. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : — We are met to commemorate, 
by the raising of this flag — the loved and honored standard of 
our countr}^ — the true beginning of our national life. The 
adoption of the Constitution in 1789 was the first definite and 
tangible link in the chain of our history as an organized, pow- 
erful and honorable national unit. Before that all-important 
step had been taken, the separate states, weakly bound to- 
gether at best by the Declaration of Independence, had been 
loosed again by the Articles of Confederation. In the words 
of Washington, the Government of the United States was 



THE FOUNDATION AND THE CAPSTONE. 39 

" little more than a shadow without the substance." Congress 
had become a despised and neglected body of scarcely more 
than twenty members, without power to raise public funds or 
to maintain either army or navy. It was totally incompetent 
to deal with the great questions which a national government 
is called upon to encounter and decide. It could advise and 
exhort the states to conform to its decrees, but was altogether 
without means of enforcing them, except by an appeal to arms. 
Under such a government it was only natural that the differ- 
ent states should act individually without reference, and often 
in direct antagonism, to the formal directions or engagements 
of Congress. So great was the general disorder that a pro- 
posal, which might easily have become an attempt, was made 
to make Washington king. The United States were on the 
verge of losing forever their character as a nation. 

That such was the situation none saw more clearly than 
Alexander Hamilton, and it was chiefly due to him that the 
Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia 102 years ago. 
It was a crisis not merely in the history of our country. 
It was no mere provincial struggle or colonial emergency 
which called together the patriotic statesmen who met under 
the Presidency of Washington to consider their country's 
needs. The stake was even greater than the fate of this vast 
continent. The fate of liberty throughout the world was 
hanging on the decision of that convention. Perhaps no 
body of men ever met whose action was so fraught with the 
weightiest consequences to humanity as that which came 
together in the City of Brotherly Love 102 years ago. It is 
certain that they cannot have realized the vast importance of 
their action. It is equally certain that they could have done 
no better if they had. Their task was briefly this: to set a 
pattern of government of the people, for the people, and by 
the people, to the world. They were to make ready the great 
model of liberty for all the world to imitate. Your presence 



40 TOM QUICK, OR 

here to-day is part of the great proof that they did it with a 
success which had perhaps never before fallen to the lot of 
human legislators. It is far beyond my power to trace the 
vastly complicated threads of influence which have sprang 
from the Constitution which they formed. France, then on 
the first billow of that irresistible revolutionary tide which was 
to change the political character of all Europe and to make 
possible the vast and beneficent changes of modern times, was 
powerfully influenced and guided by the American standard 
of government under a freedom which' France herself had 
aided us to win. Wherever the victorious armies of France 
penetrated, and there was little territory on the continent of 
Europe which they did not overrun, they overthrew the feudal 
system, lifted the unequal and iniquitous burden of taxation 
which forbade the moral or material welfare of the masses, 
and left in their place a freer government, better immensely 
for the people than that which had been destroyed; and so 
everywhere in Europe, for a time at least, the marvelous 
genius of Napoleon and the vast military power of France 
were spreading the doctrine which our forefathers stated once 
and forever in the constitution. And thus for a century and 
throughout the world the United States has been a vast object 
lesson in liberty — so vast and so important that it has com- 
pelled the attention and imitation of other nations until it is 
scarcely within the power of man to say what the extent of our 
influence in the world has been. 

Such is a part of the record of our country, our constitu- 
tion, and our flag in the past. And in view of it we have a 
right to look forward to a future of even greater influence and 
usefulness. The freest government on earth, a territory such 
as no other nation does or ever can possess, a population of 
sixty-five millions of the most vigorous, industrious, inventive 
and resourceful people the world has ever seen, and a history 
of unexampled progress and prosperity, may fairly justify a 



THE FOUNDATION AND THE CAPSTONE. 41 

great hope for the future. As has already been said, it is part 
of the manifest destiny of the human race that the balance of 
power in every sphere of human action will always rest with 
the English-speaking nations. England and the states which 
are yet to be formed from her colonies will unquestionably in 
the future be bound to the English-speaking people of Amer- 
ica in such wise that in all matters of policy they will form a 
practical unit, and in war a single and overwhelming force. 
The dominion of the earth is reserved for the English-speak- 
ing peoples, at once the most powerful, the most enlightened, 
and the most Christian nation of the earth. We may fairly 
assume that men will hereafter speak of us as their forefathers 
who will then hold sway over the whole world, as we do now 
over the best and fairest part of it. What their flag will be 
we cannot say; but if it is not the same as that which hangs 
above us, it will surely be as honorable and as beautiful, and 
will boast a history as proud as that of the stars and stripes 
which we glory in to-day. And let me here congratulate the 
town of Milford, and the county which it represents, on the 
acquisition of a flag and a liberty pole which are in every way 
worthy of them. As the emblem of our citizenship, as the 
sign of our freedom, let us honor them, holding ourselves 
ready and eager to protect them in peace, to defend them in 
war. 

You will recall that it was not until many years after these 
United States had been established that our flag took its 
present form. The first flag which bore the thirteen stripes, 
the forerunner, and it is more than likely the progenitor, of 
our national emblem, was displayed in Pennsylvania. Abram 
Markoe, captain of the Light Horse Troop of Philadelphia, 
presented to his command, during the summer of 1775, a flag 
bearing the thirteen stripes symbolical of the thirteen colonies 
which were then struggling for liberty. But the war of 
American Independence was not fought under that, or indeed 



42 TOM QUICK, OR 

under any single flag. Our first war vessels carried the old 
"pine-tree flag," with the motto "Appeal to Heaven." Wash- 
ington unfurled to the army at Cambridge a flag with thirteen 
stripes, red and white, but with the red and white cross of the 
British flag for its union. Some of our troops even carried 
the British flag itself, asserting that they were still a part of 
the British nation. But on the 12th of June, 1777, Congress 
voted "that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes 
alternately red and white, and the union be thirteen white 
stars on the blue field," The famous Paul Jones first raised 
this flag over an American man of war, the Ranger, and later 
the Bon Homme Richard fought under it when she took the 
Serapis. But after the admission of Vermont and Kentucky 
into the Union a change was made, and two stars and two 
stripes were added for the new states. Such was the flag 
which floated over Fort McHenry on September 13, 1814, and 
inspired the famous song which we are soon to have the great 
pleasure of hearing. But the flag was not yet definitely 
chosen. In 1816 a committee was appointed by Congress to 
consider changing it, and in 1818 President Monroe signed 
the bill which gave us the flag as it is now, except that as 
great states have been added to this great republic, they have 
been represented by added stars in the banner of the Union. 
Such as it is, then, except for these additions, of which so 
notable a one is represented in the flag before us, our coun- 
try's standard has been since April 13, 18 18, when it first 
looked abroad from the summit of the Hall of Representatives 
at Washington. 

There is one of the patriots of that early time, Samuel 
Reid, the -designer of the flag, to whom fate has been not a 
little unkind, and I should like to tell you a part of his story 
as an illustration of the kind of men who had their share in 
the aft'airs of this republic during the early years of the cen- 
tury. Reid was a naval oflicer, and during the war of 181 2 



THE FOUNDATION AND THE CAPSTONE. 43 

he commanded the privateer General Armstrong. In Septem- 
ber, 1 814, he was attacked in the harbor of Fayal by three 
EngUsh vessels of war, the flag-ship Plantagenet of seventy- 
four guns, the frigate Rota of forty-four, and the brig Carna- 
tion of eighteen. These vessels, then, carried together one 
hundred and thirty-six guns and over two thousand men, as 
against the seven guns and ninety men of the General Arm- 
strong. Yet in a series of encounters, including a night attack 
in boats by about five hundred men, Reid repeatedly defeated 
this force, and finally Scuttled his vessel and went ashore, 
taking with him his two dead and seven wounded, and left to 
the British the rather empty satisfaction of burning his little 
vessel, as a meagre compensation for repeated defeat, and a loss 
of three hundred in killed and wounded. There is no record 
of a more gallant naval action than this, and we should be 
prouder of it as a nation than we are, and remember Captain 
Reid more gratefully, for his gallant defense delayed the 
British squadron and gave Jackson time to reach New Orleans, 
and thus saved us not only that city, but the control of the 
Mississippi. Two years later, Reid's suggestion for the flag 
was accepted, an honor which he certainly had deserved by 
his services, even if he had not earned it by the merit of his 
design. 

It is scarcely necessary to rehearse the growth of our flag 
in power and influence abroad and in dignity at home from the 
time it was first displayed in Washington. It has passed safely 
and honorably through every crisis. The Mexican war added 
to its glory. The war of the rebellion established, beyond a 
peradventure, and for all time, that these United States are 
one and indivisible, and removed the blot and curse of slavery 
from our midst. But it did much more. It proved the 
American citizen-soldier the best in the world. It ranked 
American generalship with that of any nation on the earth. 
It demonstrated that the ''nation of shopkeepers," as we had 



44 TOM QUICK, OR 

been contemptuously called, was at once the most peaceful 
and the most formidable of nations. That the assassination 
of President Lincoln produced no new outbreak; that the vast 
army of a million volunteers was disbanded quietly and 
returned peacefully home, are facts which shed more lustre 
on our country and our flag than the greatest battles of the 
greatest modern war. Such things are only possible for a 
people self-governing both in theory and in fact. 

There are many of us here to-day — I scarcely know 
whether I am glad or sorry that I aiH one of them — who do 
not know, except in a general and theoretic way, what a mag- 
nificent power our flag is, and how much it means. We have 
not been through the war, and we can only catch what little 
we may of the pride, and love, and reverence, and service of 
the men who shed their blood in defense of the honor of the 
flag and the integrity of the Union. Our love has never been 
strengthened by sacrifice. We have heard the story of the 
war, and we know in our own experience something of the 
blessing of its results, but unless — which may God forbid — 
there should be another call for men to defend the flag which 
has protected them, we can only hold ourselves in readiness to 
answer the call if ever it does come. But courage and a mar- 
velous fidelity to principle characterized the men who founded 
and established our nation, and chose for its banner the flag 
which floats above us. Service of that flag is by no means 
confined to times of war, and that citizen whose vote is honest, 
whose voice is always raised on the side of the right, and who 
is a true man, is doing a work for his country whose power 
and magnitude it is not possible to estimate. We are citizens 
of a nation which is the head and front of the great world- 
movement toward liberty. We are presiding at the birth of a 
future which concerns, not merely this vast continent, but the 
whole round earth. We are trustees of a coming world. But 
we are first of all, and before we form a part of this vast 



THE FOUNDATION AND THE CAPSTONE. 45 

whole, citizens of Pike county, Pennsylvania, and it is here 
that we are to realize, if at all, the blessing of the great birth- 
right which has descended to us from the courage, and perse- 
verance, and energy of our forefathers. It is for these quali- 
ties that we honor them to-day. Let us then have here a 
public sentiment guarded by the purity of private life. Let 
us feel, every man of us, not only that we have a share in the 
commonwealth, but that the commonwealth has a share in us; 
a right to our service, to our thought and action. Let us 
honor and emulate the public spirit which has raised this flag, 
and cherish it as the most precious of possessions. The great 
questions of the day are as vital here as anywhere. In honor- 
ing great principles, we honor the flag which represents them, 
and the opportunity for patriotism is here as truly as it is in 
Washington. It is then not only right, but profoundly neces- 
sary that every one of us be patriots, earnest, honest, manly 
lovers of our country and our country's flag. 



From the "Dispatch," Milford, Pa., September 5, i88g. 

CELEBRATION ECHOES. 

The following letter from Hon. William Bross was read at 
the unveiling of the Quick monument at Milford, August 28, 
1889: 

Hotel Riverview, Kankakee, III., 
August 20, 1889. 
Rev. a. S. Gardiner: 

Z>ear Friend, — Your letter of August 18, giving in detail 
the arrangements proposed for the dedication of the monu- 
ment to Tom Quick, was to me a matter of absorbing interest. 
Many pages would be required were I to give you my reasons 
for that interest. In my early boyhood I saw many of those who 
had known Tom Quick, and heard from him and from others 
the thrilling incidents of his life. They were thus made to me 



46 TOM QUICK, OR 

a living reality. His life and that of his father are identified 
with the very earliest settlement of the Delaware Valley. 
Think of the nerve employed by Thomas Quick, Sr., in leaving 
his home in Holland to cross the ocean, penetrate the wilder- 
ness a hundred miles from the sea-coast, to settle on the west 
side of the Delaware among the savages, on what is now the 
beautiful town plot of Milfordl I am very glad that an asso- 
ciation of very intelligent gentlemen has been formed in the 
neighboring town of Port Jervis, to preserve these and other 
facts regarding the settlement of the Delaware Valley, for the 
instruction of those who are to come after us. They will 
never hear from their own ancestors, as I have, of the^ hair- 
breadth escapes of themselves and their children from the 
tomahawk of the savage. The change of this beautiful valley 
from a dense wilderness inhabited by savages, to the homes of 
comfort and intelligence since Tom Quick, Sr., lost his life 
on the banks of the Delaware, seems well nigh miraculous. 
Having heard the tales of its early settlement almost from the 
lips of early settlers, and having myself witnessed them for 
nearly three quarters of a century, these wonderful scenes 
seem to be passing before me as a living reality. I dare not 
trust myself to write further on them. You may be assured of 
my deep interest in your success. Please to assure the assem- 
bly of my best wishes for their continued happiness and pros- 
perity. I give you in conclusion the following sentiment: 

The first settler of Milford, who lost his life by a treach- 
erous savage: May her people in the future ever enjoy all 
the peace, happiness and prosperity which the highest Chris- 
tian culture can secure, and which have been rendered pos- 
sible to them only by the enterprise and sacrifices of the 
pioneers and early settlers of this and other portions of our 
country. 

Wm. Bross. 



THE FOUNDATION AND THE CAPSTONE. 47 

LETTER FROM REV. G. P. VAN WYCK. 

1601 N. H. Ave., Washington, October i, 1889. 
Dear Bro. Gardiner: — When your last note was received 
I supposed I would be able to comply with your request, but 
the next morning I was attacked with dizziness or vertigo, so 
that I called in a physician, who has daily prescribed for me; 
and this morning he called in a brother M. D. to consult with 
him. The case seems to be somewhat obstinate. It will be 
entirely impossible for me to prepare the articles you ask for 
your book, which I very much regret. I have not been out of 
the house since Friday last. I reached home the evening 
before. 

Mrs. V. and self unite in sending kind regards to all. 

As ever yours, 

Geo. p. Van Wyck. 



AT THE MONUMENT. 

ADDRESS OF AMOS VAN ETTEN, ESQ., OF PORT 
JERVIS, N. Y. 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: — I am some- 
what embarrassed at being called upon to make the opening 
remarks on this occasion, as it was expressly stipulated that I 
was not to make a speech, but only a few general statements 
suggested by some investigations in the ancestry of myself, to 
fill in time not otherwise occupied by the orators, who are 
prepared with speeches and will follow me. So you must not 
expect much from me, not one of the orators, and with very 
little to say. 

Tracing an ancestry through four generations of settlers 
and residents in your county, and both of my parents having 
been born almost within the confines of Milford and spent their 
early lives here, it is but natural that I should be interested in 



THE FOUNDATION AND THE CAPSTONE. 49 

the early history of the county and in this occasion which may 
be properly called your '* pioneer day." As Rev. Mr. Gardi- 
ner, however, never does things by halves, he has combined 
in the same day a celebration with a flag raising, calculated to 
inspire patriotism and fresh zeal among your people in the 
future of this glorious country — and the dedication of this 
monument, commemerative of the past, its deeds of bravery, 
and the hardships and perils of the first settlers of this region, 
who transformed the wilderness into this fertile and beautiful 
valley. 

This, too, amid invasions of hostile Indians with des- 
truction and bloodshed. Just north of us, in this Delaware 
valley, and at Goshen, in this Minisink region, are monuments 
commemerative of the battle of Minisink, and in honor of the 
heroes who there fell; below us, just outside of the valley, 
a monument erected to those whose lives were sacrificed in 
the Wyoming massacre, both in remembrance of deeds of 
valor on the battle field in warfare with savages. 

How appropriate that here, almost midway between the 
two places, should be erected this simple shaft, the only monu- 
ment in the valley, as I believe, to the hardships, bravery, and 
honest toil of the early pioneers, in felling the forests, 
cultivating the soil and making the homes we now enjoy. 
Though not on battle fields, their work was as important, and 
I may safely say, we owe as much to their efforts as to the 
heroes so deservedly remembered. 

Tom Quick, with more than local fame as the Indian 
Slayer, in his daring deeds of vengeance, called forth by the 
cruel murder of his father, is here remembered. From child- 
hood we have heard of his daring and strategy in waging 
warfare upon the savage, and though in this age of enlighten- 
ment there may be much to criticise, we must believe him to 
have been actuated by a hearty reverence for his parent, and 
a conviction of duty he owed his memory. 



50 TOM QUICK, OR 

Some one, probably a local historian, hungry for fame, a 
short time ago, wrote to the committee having in charge the 
proposed world's fair in 1892, that Christopher Columbus never 
discovered America, that he was a myth, and that he thought 
it proper the fair should not be held upon any false basis, and 
that it should be so understood. 

Strange as it may seem, we who have lived in the country 
all our lives, with pioneer ancestors, should, at this late day, 
be apprised of the fact that our country was never dis- 
covered. 

Tom Quick's life and deeds, familiar to us from boyhood, 
have been the subject of much discussion among our people 
recently, and dramatized. These, and kindred investigations 
have, to some degree, contributed to the formation of our 
local historical society at Port Jervis, and incited the erection 
of this monument. 

And now just as we are about to dedicate a monument to 
his memory, the gift of one who traces a relationship to him, 
some equally enterprising local historian, whose scalp has 
never been endangered at the hands of savages, and has pro- 
bably not received the required amount of stirring up it should 
have had, informs us that Tom Quick never killed but one 
Indian, and that he shot him in the back while stupid from 
drink. 

Well, some moral may be drawn even from this historical 
discovery in the interest of temperance, for the Indian, by 
this version, owed his death to drink, and our prohibition 
friends may point to the monument as a fearful warning 
against the evil. 

Local historians, however, are not always reliable, and in 
their zeal sometimes discover too much, as notoriety may 
require. 

Of one thing we are assured, these forests here were felled 
and this valley, as beautiful and as fertile as any in the whole 



THE FOUNDATION AND THE CAPSTONE. 5 1 

country, is transformed into such by some one. To the mem- 
ory of them, this shaft may well stand in your midst. 

I congratulate you, people of Milford and Pike county, 
upon this occasion long to be remembered, of one thing, at 
least, we may rest assured, that future historians will have no 
occasion to question the magnificent benevolence bestowed upon 
this community by a former resident, who has done so much 
to add to the progress and enterprise of this beautiful village — 
to which I may add the debt you owe Rev. Mr. Gardiner, 
the active agent, in adding to the progress and welfare of 
your borough. Such men are a blessing to any community, and 
furnish a striking example to your men of means, as to how 
they may add to the enterprise and resources of themselves 
and of the community in which they live. 

LIST OF ARTICLES 

Inclosed in the Galvanized Iron Box placed in the 

Foundation of the Quick Monument, 

Milford, Pa., August, 1889. 

1. Glass jar, containing part of the remains of Tom Quick, 

taken from his grave in the Rose Cemetery, July 17, 1889. 

2. Holy Bible. 

3. "Tom Quick; or, The Legend of the Delaware," by Hon. 

William Bross. 

4. "Tom Quick; or. The Era of Frontier Settlement," by 

Rev. A. S. Gardiner. 

5. Stone brought from the battleground of Minisink. 

6. Proceedings of Decoration Day, of Colonel Nyce Post, 

G. A. R., Milford, May 30, 1889. 

7. Historical Discourse, by Rev. A. S. Gardiner, delivered at 

Candebec Park, N. Y., before the Minisink Valley His- 
torical Society, on July 22, 1889, the one hundred and 
tenth anniversary of the battle of Minisink. 



52 TOM QUICK, OR 

8. "Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper" for August 3, 1889, 

containing the Pilgrim Monument. 

9. "The Port Jervis Evening Gazette," July 26, 1889, and 

" Port Jervis Daily Union," containing an account of the 
Historical Picnic at Candebec Park, N. Y., July 23, 1889. 

10. "New Jersey Herald," July 31, 1889. 

11. "East Hampton Star," N. Y. 

12. "Sag Harbor Express," N. Y. "New York Herald," 

London, July 22, 1889, given by Dr. Bidlack. 

13. "Evening Star," Washington, D. C., July 31, 1889, pre- 

sented by U. S. Chaplain Rev. Geo. Van Wyck. 

14. "New York Tribune," August 7, 1889. 

15. "New York Times," July 8, 1889. 

16. "Boston Evening Traveller," August 2, 1889. 

17. "Boston Weekly Advertiser," August 2, 1889. 

18. "National Temperance Advocate" for August, 1889. 

19. Monumental Bronze Co.'s Catalogue, received from G. B. 

Stoddard, Monticello, N. Y. 

20. Centennial Medallion of white metal, representing the 

inauguration of Washington as first President of the 
United States, April 30, 1 789-1889. 

21. A metal badge representing the boy Washington cutting 

the cherry tree, and bearing the words: " I cannot tell a 
lie; I cut it with my hatchet." 

22. Copy of Ordinance No. 21, passed by the Common Coun- 

cil of the Borough of Milford, Pa., setting apart to the 
purpose of erecting a monument to Tom Quick a certain 
portion of Sarah street within the limits of said borough, 
August 5, 1889, and the birthplace of Tom Quick. 

23. A paper containing the names of the Chief Burgess and 

Common Council of the Borough of Milford; names of 
the Commissioners of the County of Pike; names and 
number of merchants, lawyers, physicians, ministers; 
number and names of manufactories; number of popula- 



THE FOUNDATION AND THE CAPSTONE. 53 

tion, and an outline of the present character and pros- 
pects of the borough. 

The iron box at base of foundation is six inches deep by 
nine inches long in size. It is inclosed in a box of chestnut, 
three feet square and six inches deep, and this in turn con- 
tains a considerable amount of earth taken from the grave of 
Tom Quick, at Rose Town, and is placed in a space prepared 
for it, having a flagstone beneath and one above, and flag- 
stones on the sides, and all sealed with cement, so as to be 
impervious to moisture. 

The contents of the glass jar above named are: Fragments 
of Tom Quick's coffin, several wrought-iron nails, much 
rusted, the phalanx bone of the hand, the tibia of the leg, and 
a piece of the skull overhanging the socket of the eye. 

The boxes are at the foundation of the monument, five feet 
below the surface, and will be surrounded with solidified 
cement and stone, constituting virtually a solid rock. 



TOM QUICK'S MONUMENT. 

Address of Rev. A. S. Gardiner at its Unveiling at Mil- 
ford, Pike Co., Pa., August 28, 1889. 

Mr. President and Fellow Citizens: — It is a matter oi 
congratulation that we are assembled in such goodly numbers 
on this occasion. I have just given you a catalogue of the 
articles contained in the iron box placed at the base of the 
foundation of this monument. They are all such as will inter- 
est posterity, should this foundation at some distant period be 
explored. But that which will awaken deepest interest will be 
the glass jar which contains all that remained of the body of 
Tom Quick, after a burial of ninety-three years. In that jar 
will be found the phalanx of the hand, a part of the fibula of 
the leg and a section of the skull overhanging the socket of 



54 TOM QUICK, OR 

the eye. In addition to these, there will be found fragments 
of the coffin, and also large rusty wrought iron nails, all of 
which lay at a depth of six feet beneath the surface in what 
was originally the burial ground of the family of James 
Rosecrantz, the friend of Tom Quick, and now the cemetery 
of the heirs of the late Frederick Rose of Rose Town. The 
iron box will be found inclosed within a much larger box of 
chestnut wood, which in turn contains a considerable amount 
of earth thrown up from tfie place where the fragments of the 
coffin were discovered. The whole will be found in a chamber 
at the base of the foundation, with a flag-stone at the bottom 
and flag-stones at the top and sides, and all laid in cement 
and hence perfectly dry. Thus the action of the elements 
has been virtually set at defiance, and although the remains of 
the noted dead received no embalment at their first burial, at 
their second they secured a perpetuity which will rival that of 
time itself. 

Of this man I propose to speak. I need hardly say that it 
is the magic of his singular history that has drawn together 
this multitude to-day. This surging crowd, surpassing in 
numbers and respectability, any hitherto ever assembled in 
Milford, are now bending their gaze upon the monument 
which has just been unveiled. And this platform is not large 
enough as you see to accommodate the great number of the 
leading citizens of this region, who would gladly by their 
appearance on it have borne emphatic testimony to the im- 
portance and interest of this occasion. 

Tom Quick was an outgrowth of the period in which he 
lived. He was born on this spot one hundred and fifty-five 
years ago. He was the first white child born, as his father 
was the first settler, in this part of the upper Delaware. The 
log cabin in which he was born was the first structure built 
here by any European. It was built near a stream that 
facilities for grinding and sawing might be secured. And 



THE FOUNDATION AND THE CAPSTONE. 55 

here Tom Quick grew up, surrounded by the natives of 
the soil. Their children mingled with those of the Quick 
family, and the Indians in general enjoyed at Quick's cabin 
through a period of over twenty years a generous hospitality. 
Tom Quick grew up amongst them. With Indian boys he 
explored the woods on the neighboring hills and plied the oar 
upon the waters of the inviting Delaware. He learned of the 
Indians how to hunt the deer, to trap the beaver, to snare the 
partridge, to wield the bow, and to handle the rifle. The 
warmest friendship existed on every hand until the fatal day 
of the father's death. Tom Quick at that time had reached 
his twenty-third year. He had acquired by his outdoor life a 
physical vigor which was brought into full service in his sub- 
sequent years. It is said he was six feet high and well pro- 
portioned. The bones found in his grave do, according to 
the judgment of a surgeon, who examined them, fully sustain 
this tradition. He had paid but little, if any, attention to 
books or study. While his brothers were endeavoring to 
gather something from instruction received at a neighboring 
school, Tom Quick was studying the secrets of the forest, and 
still more, the peculiarities, customs, and may I not add, the 
cunning, of the Indian character and life. But in process of 
time, the scene changed. The frauds practiced upon the 
Delawares by the. whites at Philadelphia, awakened in the 
Indians, toward all Europeans, whether friend or foe, the 
most bitter hostility. 

The knowledge of this state of things reached the settlers 
on the upper Delaware, and led Thomas Quick and his family 
to leave their home and to seek safety, at least for a time, at 
the stone fort which stood not far away across the Delaware 
on the Jersey shore. Not suspecting that hostile Indians 
were in the neighborhood, Thomas Quick and his sons ven- 
tured across the river on the ice to grind a grist at their grist- 
mill on the Van De Mark. Supplies were needed at the fort, 



56 TOM QUICK, OR 

and this was a ready way to procure them. Returning with a 
grist on his shoulder, Thomas Quick, as the inscription on 
this monument tells you, was shot and scalped by Indians 
whose nearness and especially whose hostility he did not sus- 
pect, for they were the very Indians who, as boys, had grown 
up in free intercourse with his own children, had sat at his 
table, had cheerfully consented to his settlement in the 
region, and had never received anything but confidence and 
kindness at his hands. 

This tragedy, which was designed to include every member 
of the Quick family, and which actually came near the death 
of Tom Quick, the son, as well as of his father, changed the 
whole current in the feelings of the son, and Tom Quick from 
that time forward, made it the chief object of his life to 
avenge his father's death. 

Upon the subsequent portion of his life, I do not propose 
to enter further than to consider briefly the character of the 
period in which nearly the whole of Tom Quick's life was 
passed. 

The fraud of "The Walking Purchase " was perpetrated in 
^737) just three years after Tom Quick was born. 

The irritation which this justly excited among the Indians, 
was widespread, and continued to increase as the years passed 
by. The Indians sought redress by persistent efforts, but in 
vain. After the lapse of nearly twenty years, their rage 
found vent in active hostility toward the whites everywhere 
through the Delaware valley, and especially in the Minisink 
region, the loss of which by fraud was the special ground of 
their complaint, and friend and foe, stranger and acquaint- 
ance, among the whites became the objects of their ven- 
geance. The death of Thomas Quick, Sr., was one of the sad 
incidents of this excited and bloody period. 

But this state of warfare of which the Quick family had so 
bitter experience, took in 1756, the year of Quick's death, a 



THE FOUNDATION AND THE CAPSTONE. 5/ 

still wider range. About that time Great Britain declared 
war against France, and tlie French and Indians alike became 
the deadly foes of the Colonists. During the seven years 
which followed was carried on what is known as the French 
and Indian War. And it was not till the victory of Wolfe at 
Quebec, and Amherst at Montreal, by which the Dominion of 
France, extending from Nova Scotia to Lake Superior, and 
down the Mississippi to Florida and Louisiana, and which had 
continued during a hundred and fifty years, was in the year 
1763, brought to an end, that the colonists were set free from 
the sufferings, perils, and apprehensions, that the war had 
produced. During this period the French used every means 
to win the Indians to their side, both before and after the 
declaration of war between France and Great Britain. 
" Braddock's terrible defeat on the Monongahela near Pitts- 
burg in 1755, proved the direct means of encouraging the dis- 
affected Indians to make indiscriminate war upon the whites, 
and to pursue it with savage zest for several years." What is 
now Pike county, became the scene of frightful atrocities. 
"The Delawares came from Wyoming and the north branch of 
the Susquehanna and stole stealthily down upon the small 
exposed settlements, precisely as beasts creep at night from 
the covering darkness of the jungles, in other lands, to 
satiate their appetite for blood. Blow after blow fell upon 
the defenseless people. Camp-fires gleamed through he 
forest from the Delaware to the Susquehanna, and the lurid 
flames which devoured frontiersmen's homes, lighted up 
scenes of savage carnage which almost affrighted nature 
itself: but they died away in the solitude of the covered val- 
leys and hills, and left only dumb evidences of devastation and 
murder, in the charred timbers of the cabins and mutilated 
human remains, which often lay until torn asunder by the 
beasts and carrion birds, and dissolved by the elements. Of 
the greater number of murders which occurred in this desultory 



58 TOM QUICK, OR 

but demoniac frontier war, no records have been preserved. 
Isolated cases of barbarity were lost sight of in the common 
consternation." It was at this time, 1756, that Thomas 
Quick met his cruel fate. And it was in this same year that 
Benjamin Franklin, who had received from Governor Robert 
Hunter Morris of Pennsylvania, a commission to raise and 
command troops and to establish a line of forts from the Sus- 
quehanna to the Delaware, wrote a letter, dated January 12, 
to Capt. John Van Etten, of Upper Smithfield, the region now 
included in Pike county, and embracing the site of Milford 
itself, commissioning him to raise a company of men in order 
to the protection of "the outside of the settlements." Direc- 
tions are given in numerical order, and the sixth direction is, 
" You are to acquaint the men, that if in their ranging they 
meet with, or are at any time attacked by the Enemy, and kill 
any of them. Forty Dollars will be allowed and paid by the 
Government for each Scalp of an Indian Enemy so killed, the 
same produced with proper attestations," This was in 1756. 
The outbreak of the Indians in 1763 led John Penn, a grand- 
son of William Penn, John being Lieut. Governor of the 
province, to offer, in 1764, a large bounty for Indian scalps. 
The bounties announced by Penn were: " For every male above 
the age of ten years, captured, $150; scalped, being killed, 
$134; for every female Indian Enemy and every male under 
the age of ten years, captured, $130; for every female above 
the age of ten years scalped, being killed, $30." But before 
this announcement went to the public, peace came and 
continued till the opening of the War of the Revolution. 
But with the return of peace there did not return the 
many who had meantime perished. It was in such a school 
as this that Tom Quick spent his early manhood, and his 
deeds of blood, whatever they may have been as related to 
the Indians, found for him their warrant in the death of his 
father, in the orders of Franklin, in the proposed announce- 



THE FOUNDATION AND THE CAPSTONE. 59 

merits of Penn and in the horrible atrocities committed 
in "peace times" by the merciless savages upon the defence- 
less settlers, regardless of age or sex; atrocities "far exceed- 
ing those related of the most abandoned pirates" and justi- 
fying almost any method of retaliation and resistance. The 
spirit of all with regard to the savages was the same. If 
Tom Quick took the scalps of any Indian, we have no record 
that he applied for the bounty, thus setting an example which 
perhaps some of his modern critics would, through a greed 
of which he knew nothing, be slow to imitate. 

Tom Quick's spirit and actions are to be judged by the 
period in which he lived. That he was loved by his neighbors, 
is a matter of history. That they looked upon him as their 
defender, is equally clear. He found a welcome in their homes. 
When arrested, as he once was, by officers of the government^ 
to answer to the charge of killing an Indian, his neighbors 
rallied and effected a rescue. 

There are living witnesses to this statement. One is Mrs 
John T. Quick, of Milford township. Another is the son of 
Aaron Friedenberg, who, in the last century, lived in the town 
of Montague, N. J- His son Thomas is living on a farm of 
Henry Wells, in Dingman township. Pa. He says that his 
father was, both boy and man, with Tom Quick; was his frequent 
companion and life-long friend, and was present at his death and 
burial. That disparaging reflections upon Tom Quick aroused 
his deepest resentment. His testimony in his family, among 
his children, was always that Tom Quick was a brave, generous, 
upright man, and the story of his killing an Indian squaw and 
two children in a boat, and other stories of a kindred charac- 
ter, were both slanderous and groundless. 

Indian warfare prevailed through many years of Tom 
Quick's life. From 1755 to 1763, and from 1775 to 1783 
there was war, first with Indians; then with Indians and 
French; then with the Indians, British and tories. And, 



6o TOM QUICK, OR 

although peace between the contending parties was declared 
at the periods named, yet there was not a prompt and com- 
plete subsidence of hostile feeling. The ocean, wrought into 
fury by the spirit of the storm, continues to roll and roar long 
after the winds have retired, and the sun reappeared in a cloud- 
less sky. We are not to forget the feelings of undying hatred 
which the ravages of war engender. We see it in our own 
times, and in our own land. And when Tom Quick is brought 
to the bar of public judgment, we are to put ourselves in his 
place, and then to judge. Who can say that he did not 
exhibit surprising forbearance towards the savage who had 
taken the scalp and life of his father ? That merciless savage 
'had been familiar with the cabin and hospitality of the elder 
Quick's children, and yet, with rifle and scalping knife he 
slew him. Not only so. He rifled his aged and unarmed 
victim of the articles of value which were upon him, and then 
withdrew to his merciless companions. Tom Quick knew the 
murderer. It was Mushwink, with whom he, at his father's 
cabin door, had played in childhood, and with whom in friend- 
ship he had threaded the forest and slept beneath the stars. 
But the son of the dead father, a father whom that son loved 
with a passionate affection, did not, immediately upon the 
murderer, avenge his death. Many years passed by before the 
fatal shot was fired. And it was not until the guilty and 
insulting Indian met with a refusal from Tom Quick to drink 
with him, that his final hour arrived. To express his anger, 
and to aggravate his former friend, the Indian drew from his 
pocket the silver sleeve buttons and the shoe buckles which 
Tom Quick's father had on when he was shot, and showed 
them as the trophies of that bloody hour; and then with 
grimaces and writhings, such as only an Indian of that day 
could make, he showed Tom Quick how his fa;ther looked and 
writhed, and groaned, under the keen edge of the scalping 
knife wielded by the hand of the very Indian, whom he had 



THE FOUNDATION AND THE CAPSTONE. 6l 

often welcomed to his cabin, whom he had never injured, and 
who now, with matchless malignity, was torturing his son with 
the recital of the crime. Tom Quick seized a loaded rifle 
hanging on the wall of the inn, and told Mushwink to march. 
The Indian, cowering under the glance of the Avenger, 
obeyed. A short walk, and Tom Quick shouted, '* You will 
never kill another white man! " The words were followed 
with the crack of the rifle, and the faithless Indian, springing 
high in the air, fell dead upon the spot. I put it to you, my 
hearers, is there a jury in this country, is there a jury any- 
where that would convict Tom Quick of the crime of murder ? 
Is there a jury in this country, is there a jury anywhere, but 
that would say, had Tom Quick done less, he would have been 
an ingrate and a coward ? 

The death of Mushwink, though long delayed, was a signal 
retribution. It falls into line with the experience of Adoni- 
Bezek, the Canaanitish king, whose thumbs and great toes 
were cut off by his conquerors. "For he said, three score and 
ten kings having their thumbs and great toes cut off, gathered 
their meat under my table^as I have done, so God hath 
requited me." And the same is illustrated in the case of Agag, 
king of the Amalekites, whom Samuel hewed to pieces before 
the Lord, saying, " As thy sword hath made women childless, 
so shall thy mother be childless among women." 

But one man has said on our streets to-day, " Better set up 
a monument to Tom Paine, than to Tom Quick." But why 
make the comparison ? Barring Tom JPaine's infidelity and 
his abuse of Washington, he deserves a monument. His 
" Common Sense " and " Rights of Man " dealt heavy blows 
against the British power, and in behalf of freedom. And 
could we regard him in this light alone, I would give my con- 
tribution for a monument to his memory. Others say that 
monuments might as worthily rise to the memory of other 
pioneers in the valley of the Upper Delaware. Be it so. I 



62 TOM QUICK, OR 

should, for my own part, be glad to see monuments rising here 
and there through this valley, bearing the names of enterpris- 
ing men of an early day. The Wellses, the Biddises, the 
Broadheads, the Cuddebacks, the Bohannons, the Brinks, the 
Rosecrantzes, the Van Aukens, the Westbrooks, the Westfalls, 
the Newmans, and the way is quite clear for their posterity to 
do what one of the descendants of Thomas Quick, Sr., is 
doing for him and his son to-day. 

I have but little more to add upon this branch of my sub- 
ject. It has been alleged that Tom Quick was a wholesale 
destroyer of the Indians by means foul or fair, and that he 
deserves the title of " Red Revenger." On the other hand, 
in order to convict him of cowardice, it is said, that he never 
killed more than one Indian, and that he shot him in the back. 
The inconsistency of the charges is apparent. If he never 
killed but one Indian, and that as an offset to his murdered 
father, he cannot be justly hounded as a blood-thirsty cannibal, 
a " Red Revenger," a Guiteau or a Wilkes Booth. If he killed 
many Indians, it shows him to have been their match in 
courage and skill and cunning, able to take care of his own 
life which they were continually seeking to destroy, and fear- 
less as a defender of his friends, when the war-whoop resounded 
among scattered and defenseless homes, and the blaze of 
burning dwellings illumined the midnight sky. The story of 
the battle of Minisink, and the massacres at Cherry Valley 
and Wyoming, as well as the death of his father, give us the 
secret of the life of Tom Quick, the "Avenger of the Dela- 
ware." And had you and I been subjected to the same experi- 
ence and especially the same provocation, and had we pos- 
sessed the strength and courage and skill which distinguished 
him, it is highly probable that we should have adopted the 
course which he pursued as the one best fitted to serve the 
cause of the early settlers, and to secure speedy peace and 
ultimate prosperity to the valley of the upper Delaware. 



THE FOUNDATION AND THE CAPSTONE. 63 

The exercises of this occasion, fellow citizens, would be 
quite incomplete, did I not call to your attention the dis- 
tinguished man whose munificence has rendered this delight- 
ful and now historic gathering possible. The telegram 
received from him this afternoon, dated at Chicago, long the 
place of his residence, has told you how deep an interest he 
has in the transactions of this hour. And the letter from him 
just read, almost under the shadow of this monument, but 
amplifies the sentiments contained in that telegram. The 
Hon. William Bross, of whom I speak, is well known to many 
of you. He was born in this region, in Montague township, 
Sussex county, N. J., on the western slope of the Sussex 
mountains, and east bank of the Delaware. In company with 
Judge Cole, Governor Bross' companion in childhood, and at 
school, I recently visited, under his guidance, the birth-place 
and scenes of his friend's earliest years; it was a place truly 
picturesque, and yet noticeable for the rocks and stones every- 
where to be seen. The woods stood dense around us, and 
through them flowed the stream which had been a source of 
profit and enjoyment to Moses Bross in the rearing of his 
numerous family. The site of the old school-house was not far 
away, and the spring, cool and clear, from which the school 
children in those days, drank refreshment and health, still 
reflected the brightness of the summer's sky in its silent, 
motionless depths. In 1822 Moses Bross moved to Milford 
and here his son William, then nine years old, passed his early 
years. His history, you know. But it will bear repeating. 
Industrious in boyhood, he was ready to take up any honor- 
able work. He was employed to carry the village weekly 
paper to its subscribers. When his father lived upon the 
banks of the Delaware, at the mouth of the Van De Mark, 
now flowing before us, the son carried supplies to the rafts- 
men, and thus contributed his part toward the maintenance 
of the home. Under the inspiration of his parents, whose 



64 TOM QUICK, OR 

praise is frequently on his lips, he availed himself of every 
means of knowledge, and pressed on amid obstacles in its 
pursuit. At the age of twenty, he left Milford, all his worldly 
goods wrapped in a bandanna handkerchief, slung on a stick 
over his shoulder, in his pocket one single dollar, the gift of a 
now venerable woman, Mrs. Judge Eldred, still living in Mil- 
ford, at the advanced age of ninety-two, a suit of clothes 
which he had obtained on credit, and for which he afterward 
paid, and upon his head and heart the benedictions of pious 
parents, he crossed the Delaware to Montague, and thence 
across the Sussex mountains on foot to Libertyville, that he 
might there continue, under Rev. Edward Allen, the course of 
study, which he had pursued under that divine when Mr. 
Allen was pastor of the Presbyterian church in Milford. 
Here, working for Mr. Allen in summer, that he might have 
his instruction in winter, young Bross pushed on, until he 
entered Williams College in Massachusetts. A course of 
study during four years, set him free to go out into the world, 
and plan and act for himself. You know his history. The 
great west drew him thither. His habits of life led him first 
to act the part of a teacher, and then of an editor, until at 
last the Chicago " Tribune " was established, a journal which 
rivals in circulation, influence and financial prosperity, the 
leading papers of New York and London. Of this great 
paper he was one of the founders; he is at present one of its 
principal owners, and of the Tribune Association, he is the 
president. 

The honors conferred upon him by his fellow citizens, have 
been numerous and great. In 1865-69, he was lieutenant 
governor of Illinois, and he had the distinction of being the 
first state official to give the endorsement of a state to the Thir- 
teenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. 

His travels in his own and foreign lands, have been exten- 
sive, and thus wide ODntact with men and society has imparted 



THE FOUNDATION AND THE CAPSTONE. 65 

to him a breadth of views that has led to a noble private and 
public generosity. 

During the present summer he has given to Lake Forest 
University, of whose trustees he is president, the munificent 
sum of fifty thousand dollars for the founding of a professor- 
ship of biblical literature, and in addition to this, the sum of 
fifteen thousand dollars for the building of a residence to be 
occupied by the professor in that department. It is an inter- 
esting fact to state that the present occupant of that professor- 
ship is Rev. Moses Bross Thomas, a son of one of the sisters 
of Governor Bross, and a descendant of the fifth generation 
from Thomas Quick, Sr., in whose honor' in part, this monu- 
ment has been erected. Prof. Thomas is named for his two 
grandfathers. Judge Moses Thomas, a leading Baptist of 
Demascus, Pa., and Deacon Moses Bross, of Milford, Pa. 

It is, and must be to all ingenuous minds, a matter of con- 
gratulation that the planting of this once unbroken wilderness 
should be followed by such results. But might they not have 
been expected ? The pioneers of this valley were men of God. 
You may see before you the symbol of their piety and the 
secret of their success. I hold it up that you may see it. It 
is an old Flemish Bible. It was brought to this country and 
into this region about 1741, the year of its date, by Daniel 
Van Gorden, the great-grandfather of that venerable woman, 
Mrs. John Tyson Quick, the present owner of the Bible, now 
in her ninety-second year. We had hoped that she would be 
here to-day to unveil this monument. In her absence, I have 
shown you her picture, taken at ninety. She was baptized by 
Dominie Van Schoten and sat in childhood under the preaching 
of Rev. Mr. Elting, in Montague, and joined the Presbyterian 
church in Milford under Rev. Mr. Greer, more than sixty 
years ago. She presents a type of the early settlers of the 
valley of the Upper Delaware. This Bible is hers. It has 
been handed down from generation to generation, until now 



(i6 TOM QUICK, OR 

none but Mrs. Quick herself can read or understand the lan- 
guage in which it is written. It is a venerable relic of a past 
age. The influence of that age is with us to-day. That 
influence led young Bross to strike for liberal learning, and 
the same influence has led him to do liberal things in the inter- 
ests of education and religion. The clock and bell which 
have sounded out from yonder steeple to-day, were gifts from 
him.* This monument speaks to us all of the deep interest he 
feels in the memory and deeds of an honored and honorable 
ancestry. The telegram and letter we have read to-day, show 
how interested he is in the proceedings of this now historic 
occasion. And that while debility of body keeps him from us, 
sympathy and cooperation bring him near, and make him one 
with us. The hearty cheers, which, in response to the sugges- 
tion of our honored president, an old friend of Governor 
Bross, you gave at the reading of his letter, will give joy to 
his heart. The history of his life shows what is possible 
under our free institutions, and will be an inspiration to the 
youth of America through coming generations. 

Fellow citizens, the hours are rapidly flying. We regret 
their departure. It is good to be here. It was good to be 
yonder. In the distance we can see the flag of our country 
waving in the breeze. We have had our thoughts directed in 
eloquent words to the origin and to the significance of that 
flag. We have inaugurated to-day, for this community and 
region, the second centenary of the republic. We have gone 
back to the sources of our history. The distant years of 
pioneer enterprise, and the present have met. Ancestors and 
posterity have to-day clasped hands. The west greets the 
east, and the east the west. . Poetry and oratory and music 
have combined to render this occasion illustrious. Representa- 
tives of different portions of our own and of adjoining states are 

* The clock and the bell were presented to the Presbyterian Church as memo- 
rials to his mother and father, who were among the first members of the church, 
his father being one of the first elders. 



THE FOUNDATION AND THE CAPSTONE. 6/ 

here to swell the numbers, and to share in the duties and 
pleasures of the hour. Welcorhe ! Welcome ! And when 
another centenary rolls around, may others, our children and 
our children's children, gather to this spot to recount the dar- 
ing, the privations, the piety of their ancestors; and may the 
"gorgeous ensign of the republic still full high advanced," 
continue to be in its stripes the symbol of the Old Thirteen, 
and in its field of blue display increasing brightness, till it 
shall outnumber and outshine the Northern Bear, and the 
Southern Cross, and with a hundred stars salute the world. 



THE CHIEF SINGER 

And the Chorus, at the Celebration. 

Mrs. George St. John, 
Assisted by 

Mrs. Hannah Williamson, 
Mrs. Joseph Bensall, 
Miss Lizzie Bull, 
Mrs. Geo. Mitchell, 
Mrs. Ring, of N. Y., 
Mrs. Butler, " 
John C. Wallace, 
Jas. Bull. 
Organ loaned by Mr. Geo. Dauman. 

PERSONS ON THE PLATFORM, 
Or who were invited and wauLD have occupied it had 

THERE BEEN ROOM FOR THEM. 

Rev. Geo. Van Wyck, 
Hon. W. H. Armstrong, 
Gifford Pinchot, 



68 TOM QUICK, OR 

Miss Fanny Dimmick, 
Henry Gamage, 
David M. Slossen, 
Rosencrantz Bull, 
Sovereign Vannoy, 
Jacob Westbrook, 
James Hutchinson, 
Col. C. N. Pine, 
M. D. Mott, 
Dr. Bidlack, 
Geo. Dauman, 
P. A. L. Quick, 
Victor Quick, 
Rev. A. S. Gardiner, 
Mrs. George St. John, 
The Choir, and others. 



From "The Dispatch," Mil/ord, Pa., September s, 1889. 

The inscriptions on the Tom Quick monument were made 
under the direction of Hon. Wm. Bross, of Chicago, and that 
gentleman particularly requested that Rev. A. S. Gardiner's 
name should appear thereon. This notice is given to silence 
any criticism that may be made regarding the prominence 
given to the name of the reverend gentleman. But Mr. Gar- 
diner is one of the chief pioneers of enterprise in Milford, and 
deserves to be immortalized on the pioneer monument, inde- 
pendent of his zeal in behalf of the memory of the " Indian 
Slayer." 

From the " Portjcrvis Weekly Gazette," Friday, September 20, i88g. 

We are indebted to Rev. A. S. Gardiner, of Milford, Pa., 
for a photograph of Mrs. John T. Quick's Flemish Bible, 
printed in 1741, and also for a photographic picture of the 



THE FOUNDATION AND THE CAPSTONE. 69 

monument to Tom Quick recently unveiled at Milford. The 
photographs are excellent. The Bible is open at the title- 
page of the "Apocrypha," the Quick family record being on 
the opposite page, all of which we could read, if we under- 
stood Dutch, so well has Mr. J. A. Myer, the Milford photog- 
rapher, done his work. 

From " The Dispatch," Milford, Pa., August 21), i88<). 

The Liberty Pole was planted on Thursday of last week to 
be in readiness for the ceremonies of yesterday. It is in three 
pieces, towers eighty-four feet above ground, and is crowned 
with a suitable " liberty cap," the handiwork of H. L. Canne. 
Nathan Fuller prepared the pole, and, with the assistance 
of Thomas Armstrong, the New York contractor, it was placed 
in position. It is a handsome ornament to Centre Square. 



From "The Dispateh," Milford, Pa., September 27, i88g. 

THE LATE MRS. JOHN T. QUICK. 

The funeral of Mrs. John Tyson Quick, who died on the 
loth, took place at the Presbyterian Church, Milford, on Fri- 
day, 13th inst. The day of her burial marked exactly ninety- 
one years and six months from the day of her birth. She had 
lived on the John T. Quick farm, on the way from Milford to 
Port Jervis, for seventy years. For sixty years she was a 
member of the Milford Presbyterian Church. She was born 
in Montague, N. J. Her father's name was Levi Middaugh. 
Her grandfather on her mother's side, Daniel Van Gorden. 
In childhood she lived with her grandfather Van Gorden, and 
from him she heard many interesting incidents respecting 
colonial and revolutionary times. Her memory was retentive, 
and her intellect clear to the last. Her general health was 
uniformly good until within a few months of her death. Her 



70 TOM QUICK, OR 

age ran back to 1798; her grandfather Van Gorden's to 1730. 
He came with his father in 1742 from Holland to America. 
His father, Daniel Van Gorden, Sr., was born about 17 10, 
eight years after the death of William III., Prince of Orange 
and King of England. 

The father and son were a part of the early emigration 
from Holland which settled in the region of the Minisink. 
This region, in the widest limits, extended from Kingston to 
the Water Gap, and from the Water Gap to Cochecton. 

The funeral was attended by many of our oldest citizens. 
The address was made by the pastor of the church, and 
the prayer was offered by Rev. Jos. Millett, of Montague. 
Mrs. Quick was buried beside her husband in the upper ceme- 
tery. G. 

From the " Wilkes-Barre Record.'" 

A MONUMENT TO TOM QUICK. 

The "Record" has been shown a large poster issued from 
the "Dispatch" office, Milford, Pike county, which reads as 
follows: "Tom Quick, or the era of frontier settlement. 
The monument to Tom Quick and his father will be unveiled 
with appropriate ceremonies at Milford, Pike county. Pa., on 
the afternoon of Wednesday, August 28, 1889. The centen- 
nial liberty pole and national flag will be raised on Centre 
Square, where Gifford Pinchot, Esq., will deliver an address, 
Hon. W. H. Armstrong will read Drake's noted poem, and 
Mrs. George St. John will sing 'The Star-spangled Banner.' 
Col. J. Nyce Post G. A. R. and the Rudolph Band will lead 
the procession to the monument, where the exercises will be 
opened by Rev. Dr. Mills, of Port Jervis, president of the 
Minisink Valley Historical Society, and addresses will be 
delivered by Judge AUerton and Amos Van Etten, Esq., 
Rev. Joseph Millett, J. H. Van Etten, Esq., Hon. John D. Van 



THE FOUNDATION AND THE CAPSTONE. 71 

Auken, Rev. A. S. Gardiner, and a letter will be read from 
Hon. William Bross, of Chicago, who gives the monument." 

Hon. Wm. Bross, above mentioned, is ex-Lieut. Governor 
of Illinois, and now president of the Chicago Tribune Com- 
pany. Mr. Bross, as a boy, served his first apprenticeship in 
a printing office at Milford under our former townsman, Hon. 
Benjamin Alden Bidlack, who died at his post of duty as U. S. 
Minister at Bogota, many years ago. He lived in the house 
on North Main Street, in this city, now the property of G. B. 
Nicholson's heirs. Governor Bross is a descendant from the 
Quicks, whose monument is to be unveiled on the 28th. The 
governor has always maintained a deep interest in the early 
history of this northeastern portion of Pennsylvania, and was 
a prominent visitor at Wyoming's looth year memorial ser- 
vices, July 3, 1878. 

Copy from the Original. 

CERTIFICATES AS TO THE LOCALITY OF TOM 
QUICK'S GRAVE. 

FROM WM. H. ROSE AND JACOB P. DEWITT. 

I hereby certify that the grave where Tom Quick was 
buried is in the Rose Cemetery, Rose Town, Pa. It is well 
known to me as the grave of Tom Quick from information 
received from my grandfather, Fredk. A. Rose, and from my 
father, Benjamin Rose, and others. It was from this grave that 
such of the remains of Tom Quick as could be found, were 
dug up and removed under the direction of Rev. A. S. Gardiner, 
July, 1889, that they might be placed beneath the monument 
recently erected to Tom Quick's memory in the Borough of 
of Milford, Pa. 

(Signed) William H. Rose. 

Rose Town, Pa., Sept. 26, 1889. 



72 TOM QUICK, OR 

I hereby certify that I received the information in the fore- 
going certificate given by Wm. H. Rose relating to the grave of 
Tom Quick, from my father Lodowick DeWitt, and from James 
Rosecrantz, Garrett Van Auken, all of Pennsylvania, Aaron 
Friedenberg and Everett Van Auken, both of New Jersey, all 
of whom were present at the burial of Tom Quick, and with 
whom I went when a little boy, to visit, as they said, Tom 
Quick's grave. It was the grave from which the remains of 
Tom Quick have been recently removed (that is, what of them 
could be found) that they might be placed under the monu- 
ment erected to the memory of Tom Quick at Milford, Pa. 
(Signed) Jacoi? P. DeWitt. 

Matamoras, Sept. 26, 1889. 



THE LOVELY RIVERS AND LAKES OF MAINE. 

BY DR. GEORGE 13. WALLIS. 

Oh ! the lovely rivers and lakes of Maine ! 
I am charmed with their names, as my song will explain 
Aboriginal muses inspire my strain. 
While I sing the bright rivers and lakes of Maine — 
From Cupsuptac to Cheputmaticook; 
From Sagadahock to Pohenegamook, — 
— 'gamook, 'gamook, — 
Pohenegamook, 
From Sagadahock to Pohenegamook. 

For light serenading the "blue Moselle," 

"Bonnie Doon" and "Sweet Avon" will do very well; 

But the rivers of Maine, in their wild solitudes, 

Bring a thunderous sound from the depth of the woods, — 

The Aristook and the Chimmenticook; 

The Chimpasaock and Chinquassabamtook, — 



THE FOUNDATION AND THE CAPSTONE. 73 

— 'bamtook, 'bamtook, 
The Chinquassabamtook, 
The Chimpasaock and Chinquassabamtook. 

Behold ! how they sparkle and flash in the sun, 
The Mattewamkeag and the Mussungun, 
The kingly Penobscot and wild Woolastook, 
Kennebec, Kennebago and Sebasticook, 
The pretty Presumpscut and gay Tulanbic, 
The Essaquilsagook and the little Schoodic, — 

Schoodic, Schoodic, 

The little Schoodic, — 
The Essaquilsagook and the little Schoodic ! » 

Away down South, the Cherokee 
Has named his river the Tennessee, 
The Chattahoochee and the Ocmulgee, 
The Congaree and the Ohoopee; 
But what are they, or the Frenchy Detroit, 
To the Passadumkeag or the Wassatoquoit ? — 
— 'toquoit, 'toquoit. 
The Wassatoquoit, — 
The Passadumkeag or the Wassatoquoit ? 

Yes, yes, I prefer the bright rivers of Maine, 
To the Rhine, or the Rhone, or the Soane, or the Seine. 
These may do for the cockney, but give me some nook. 
On the Ammonoosuc or the Wytopadlook; 
On the wild and winding Piscataquis, 
Or the Umsaskis or the Ripogenis, — 
— 'genis, 'genis, 
The Ripogenis, — 
The Umsaskis or the Ripogenis. 



74 TOM QUICK, OR 

Then turn to the beautiful lakes of Maine. 
To the sage of Auburn * be given this strain, 
The statesman whose genial and bright fancy makes 
The earth's highest glories to shine in its lakes. 
What lakes, out of Maine, can we place in the book 
With Matagomon or the Pangokomook ? 
— 'omook, 'omook, 
The Pangokomook, — 
The Matagomon or the Pangokomook. 

Lake Leman, or Como, what care I for them, 

When Maine has the Moosehead and Pongokwahem? 

And sweet as the dews in the violet's kiss. 

The Wallagosquegamook and the Telasamis; 

And when I can share in the fisherman's bunk, 

On the Moosetuckmaguntic or Molitunkamunk, — 

— 'amunk, 'amunk, — 

The Molitunkamunk, — 

The Moosetuckmaguntic or Molitunkamunk. 

» 
And Maine has the Eagle lakes, Cheeappawgan; 

And the little Sepic, and the little Seapan; 

The spreading Sebago, the Cangomgomoc; 

The Milikonet and Montesenioc; 

Caribou and the fair Apmonjenegamook, 

Oquassac and rare Weetokenebacook, 

— 'acook, 'acook, 

Weetokenebacook, — 

Oquassac and rare Weetokenebacook. 

And there are the Pokeshine, and Patquongomis, 
And there is the pretty Coscomogonosis; 
Romantic Umbagog and Pemadumook, — 
The Pemadumook and the old Chesuncook; 

* Dedicated to Hon. W. H. Seward, of Auburn, N. Y. , after his return home from 
liis trip around the world, 1871. 



THE FOUNDATION AND THE CAPSTONE. 75 

Seposis and Moosetuck; and take care not to miss 
The Umbazookscus and the Sysladobsis; — 

— 'dobsis, 'dobsis, — \ 

The Sysladobsis, — 
The Umbazookscus and the Sysladobsis. 

Oh ! give me the rivers and lakes of Maine, 
In her mountains, or forests, or fields of grain; 
In the depth of the shade, or the blaze of the sun. 
The lakes of Schoodic and the Basconegun; 
And the dear Waubasoos, and the clear Aquessuc; 
And the Cosbosecontic and Millenikikuk, — 
— 'kikuk, 'kikuk, 

The Millenikikuk,— 
The Cosbosecontic and Millenikikuk ! 



^M5fei 



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